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M)er#De educational jftonograp^ 

EDITED BY HENRY SUZZALLO 

PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON, SEATTLE 

HISTORY IN THE 
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 

BY 

CALVIN NOYES KENDALL, LL.D. 

COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION FOR THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY 

FORMERLY SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, INDIANAPOLIS, 

INDIANA, NEW HAVEN, CONN., ETC. 

AND 

FLORENCE ELIZABETH STRYKER, A.M. 

HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY, STATE NORMAL 
SCHOOL, MONTCLAIR, NEW JERSEY 




HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 

BOSTON, NEW YORK AND CHICAGO 






COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY CALVIN NOYES KENDALL AND FLORENCE 
ELIZABETH STRYKER 

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



V 



MAR 21 ISI8 



CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS 
U - S . A 



©CI.A4 92K 



CONTENTS 

Editor's Introduction v 

I. The Value of History in the Elementary 
School i 

II. The History Story in the Primary Grades io 

III. The Biographical Story in the Inter- 

mediate Grades 15 

IV. The Use of the History Textbook . .22 
V. The Assignment of the Lesson . . .25 

VI. The Study Recitation 29 

VII. The Use of Outside Reading ... 38 

VIII. The Recitation 47 

IX. The Use of the Outline .... 70 
X. The Use of Illustrative Material . . 78 

XL Dramatization 91 

XII. Debates 103 

XIII. Relation of History to Geography . .109 

XIV. Concerning English 115 

XV. Concerning Holidays 122 

Outline 131 



EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 

History is social experience. In so far as it is 
the experience of a single nation, it consists of 
the adventures of many generations of ancestors 
living in a continuous group. We care to know 
and remember it primarily because it explains 
what we are and what we are going to be. It is 
the record of the situations which have permitted 
and limited our aspirations; it is the accounting 
of our social failures and successes; it is the story 
of the evolution of the institutional instruments 
with which we now control our social life. From 
it we have taken all our social courages and cau- 
tions. It is our book of national lessons in which 
we search for experience to solve the future. 

Timid of the responsibilities which are inevit- 
able in this view of history teaching, and tinged 
by an academic indifference to everything save 
impersonal perception of the truth, many of our 
most respectable and mature historical teachers 
have disavowed the practical purposes of history. 
The error of such a disavowal is not grievous in 
the universities. There the impersonal search 
for truth is a major business, and the students 

v 



EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 

taught are so mature and highly selected that 
the scientific teaching of history largely fulfills 
the needs of the situation. It is when these at- 
titudes and methods descend to the classrooms 
of high and elementary schools that we perceive 
their inadequacy and begin to realize that a 
merely scientific aim must be supplemented by 
practical, social, and civic objectives, and that 
methods of instruction must be so devised as to 
make the important events of other generations 
vital and appealing to the individuals of this. In 
no other way can the really significant truths of 
history be individualized and made a common 
group possession. 

Of course it is absolutely necessary that the 
scientific historian shall discover by a rigid 
method what our social past has really been. 
The disentanglement of truths from myths is 
a serious task and must be accomplished relent- 
lessly. But the acceptance of this obligation does 
not by any means complete the duty of histo- 
rians as a class. Since ordinary men cannot and 
will not know all that historians do, it is neces- 
sary to choose that which is the more significant 
in the interpretation of the historic currents 
which have swept us into our present and will 
sweep us on to our futurq. 

vi 



EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 

Once in possession of the scientific facts of 
history, the historian who would make his 
truths vital in the transmission must pick and 
reject, emphasize and subordinate, according 
as the things known have greater or less social 
significance. Unfortunately, it is too frequently 
the case that the scientific historian does not 
readily turn conscious social historian. When he 
writes, as necessarily he does, he must determine 
sequences of topics and the relative space to be 
given each, and these decisions inevitably express 
his own measure of the worth of events — a 
measure more or less personal and only half 
reasoned out. Thus, some writers have empha- 
sized military and political affairs, and others 
have stressed the economic and social aspects of 
history. The difference is due to a personal dis- 
agreement as to what is the more important 
knowledge for the man living now and in the 
future. Among all these variations in the treat- 
ment of national experience, the teacher must 
make his way to some definite choice of impor- 
tant facts. And a difficult path it is that leads to 
the solution of this first problem. 

Once the web of history is re-spun for its expe- 
rience or living worth, the teacher has another 
task, that of transmitting the same to the 

vii 



EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 

younger generation, so that the truths of the 
rational life clutch the personal life of the citizen 
as powerfully as experiences that have been 
directly won. This second is the pedagogical 
problem — the task of personalizing national ex- 
periences so widely among men that a national 
consciousness of mind arises from common pos- 
session. 

In the solution of these two difficulties of the 
schoolmaster, this text will aid. It offers invalu- 
able suggestions for making a functional choice 
of historic facts and develops in detail the tried 
and successful methods that will make the tra- 
vails and lessons of national groups long since 
dead, vital and useful vicarious experiences to 
that growing citizen — the American youth. 



HISTORY IN 
THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 

I 

THE VALUE OF HISTORY IN THE 
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 

History explains the present 

"He who knows nothing of history/' says 
Macaulay, "may be likened to a blind man who, 
passing through a wonderful gallery filled with 
beautiful pictures, sees none of them/' 

Perhaps it might be justly claimed that he 
who knows no history is hopelessly blind to the 
meaning of the world in which he lives. The child 
finds himself in a complex and mysterious civi- 
lization. He meets, daily, customs, institutions, 
ideas, words, whose significance he does not un- 
derstand. 

As science reveals to him the meaning of the 
physical phenomena around him, so the study of 
history explains to him the social problems that 
excite his curiosity. 

i 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

The child is the eternal questioner. History 
answers some of his questions. 

It is the history lesson that tells him why his 
town has a certain name; what is meant by the 
United States, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, etc.; 
why people go to different churches; why his 
father is a Republican or a Democrat; what hap- 
pens on election day; why men cheer the flag. It 
is the history lesson that explains the other chil- 
dren in the classroom and their different ways 
of living — Italians, Russians, Germans. News- 
paper headlines become intelligible through his 
knowledge of history and civics. The boy who 
said, " What 's the use of studying history? It 's 
all past," had not learned that history is the 
powerful acid that dissolves the complex ele- 
ments of the world we live in into their true parts. 
By its aid we understand more clearly not only 
the past, but the ever-changing, confused present. 

History stimulates intelligent patriotism. If 
the public school is the " melting-pot " in which 
we fuse the diverse and heterogeneous elements 
abounding in American life, then the study of 
American history is a most potent flame in this 
great process. 

The little foreigner but recently arrived, who 
in broken English talks proudly of what "our 

2 



THE VALUE OF HISTORY 

Pilgrim Fathers done," has, felt the magic of this 
flame. 

History teaching, however, that gives merely 
a superficial, sentimental patriotism is both 
futile and dangerous. To salute the flag is easy; 
to be an intelligent citizen takes thought and 
time and involves some sacrifice. 

The school celebrations on Washington's and 
Lincoln's birthdays, if they are worth anything 
to the child, should show him that the making 
of a nation is a difficult and laborious task, a 
task which is not yet finished. 

He reads eagerly the story of the dark days, 
the cold nights, the suffering at Valley Forge, 
but the story should do more than arouse his love 
of the heroic. It should stir in him a feeling of 
love and gratitude toward Washington and the 
men who created this Republic regardless of 
pain and hardship. 

This America has been given him by them to 
guard and cherish. It is a precious gift which he 
must preserve at any cost. Hundreds have lived 
bravely and died nobly that he may enjoy this 
priceless heritage; therefore the study of history 
should arouse in him an overwhelming sense of 
loyalty and duty to the nation, a desire for serv- 
ice that " neither doubts, nor counts the cost, 

3 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

nor asks recognition," a service that means sac- 
rifice, an Americanism worthy of the name. 

History develops the reasoning power and the 
balanced judgment 

While history kindles patriotism, when it is 
truthfully presented, it is also the best cure for 
a narrow provincialism, a provincialism which 
sees only one side to a question, that dislikes and 
sneers at all foreigners, that believes the false 
theory that " one's country is always in the 
right." 

If it teaches anything, history teaches the bal- 
anced judgment. It is the remedy for the stupid 
partisanship which crushes independent reason- 
ing and prevents reform. 

The eighth-grade child who argues for the rights 
of the British Parliament during the Revolution, 
or presents the secession doctrine to his class, has 
learned to think, the chief end of education. 

We consider that the ability to examine both 
sides of an argument, to pick out the truth while 
seeing the other man's point of view, is a rare 
gift among adult thinkers. Children in the upper 
elementary grades are perfectly capable of exer- 
cising this same reasoning power if they are 
properly trained to use their minds. 

4 



THE VALUE OF HISTORY 

But because of the banal and one-sided text- 
books which are often presented to them, and 
the teacher's lack of interest or information, the 
average child emerges from his study of history 
with his reasoning powers utterly untouched, his 
viewpoint biased, his knowledge of the past vague 
and inaccurate. 

As the vast majority of American children 
never reach the high school, they enter upon the 
business of life untrained in a kind of reasoning 
most valuable in daily affairs. 

It has been said that knowledge of historical 
facts is not necessary for success in life. This is 
true, but the ability to think clearly, to under- 
stand that nothing happens without some cause, 
to realize that an important event like the Dec- 
laration of Independence or the invention of the 
steam engine affects our lives to-day, — all this 
is more than a mere knowledge of facts and will 
help the child in his struggle with life. 
1 Biography is peculiarly powerful in developing 
the child's judgment. 

The discovery that the great men of the past 
had faults like our faults, that they sometimes 
made mistakes, that we must judge them and their 
acts by the times in which they lived, arouses the 
child's interest and develops his reasoning faculty. 

5 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

He finds, that Washington owned slaves, that 
the Puritans were cruel and unjust to the Quak- 
ers, that John Hancock was arrested for smug- 
gling, that Benedict Arnold was a brave soldier 
and saved the day at Saratoga. What should he 
think about these matters? 

The very effort to think about them at all 
is excellent mental discipline. When the child 
studies carefully the life of the past in order to 
understand the action of the hero, he not only 
gains information, he cultivates his judgment. 

But the child will never develop mentally by 
the mere memorizing of historical facts. The 
stimulation of his reasoning power must be ob- 
tained by methods that lead to thoughtful study, 
class discussion, and definite expression. 

History stimulates the imagination and interests 
the child in historical reading 

With the exception of literature no subject so 
excites the imagination and carries the student 
into a world of fascinating adventure and excite- 
ment as history. The history story is like a magic 
carpet that bears the child away from the daily 
prosaic life of home and school into a land of 
eternal romance. 

From the time he meets the Indians in the 

6 



THE VALUE OF HISTORY 

first grade and enjoys their delightful company, 
or travels with Daniel Boone across the Kentucky 
mountains, holds the bridge with Horatius, 
attends a tournament with Richard the Lion- 
Hearted, paddles down the Mississippi with Mar- 
quette, until he steams up the Hudson with Ful- 
ton, he is the comrade of great adventurers, the 
interested spectator of great deeds. 

Not only does history appeal to the child's 
imagination and love of romance, but it is part 
of his educational equipment. He meets the his- 
torical figure in literature, in the art museums, 
in allusions in the newspapers, in plays at the 
theater, even in moving-picture shows; if he 
knows nothing about these personages or the 
part they played in life, he has been cheated out 
of his natural heritage. 

Standing on the steps of the noble statue of 
Joan of Arc recently erected on Riverside Drive 
in New York City, a little Italian girl told in 
charming English to a group of East Side chil- 
dren the great story of the French maid. She had 
learned it all in school, the moving tale and the 
language in which she told it. The children 
touched the stone with reverent little fingers and 
went home the richer for their vision of bravery 
and sacrifice. The history story had indeed justi- 

7 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

fied itself. Children whose imagination and inter- 
est are developed along the lines of historical read- 
ing have found a treasure house to which they can 
resort in later days. The historical novel, the 
books of the great historians, biography, and 
travel are resources which never fail them in after 
life. The taste for such reading may be taught 
and cultivated in the elementary school. 

History as a guide to conduct 

That the study of history explains much in our 
present-day life, that it teaches patriotism, de- 
velops the judgment and the reasoning power, 
stirs and delights the imagination, and is a source 
of pleasure in later years are results that nearly 
all teachers are willing to acknowledge; but that 
history study enables us to decide the problems 
of life or is in any way a guide to conduct is per- 
haps less easily proved. 

The moral and the ethical elements, however, 
are strongly visible in many of the history stories 
we teach in school. The beauty of sacrifice, the 
evil results of selfishness, the wickedness of tyr- 
anny and cruelty, the hatefulness of hypocrisy 
and the nobility of patience, courage, and hon- 
esty are emphasized again and again in the his- 
tory books as they are in human life. The story 

8 



THE VALUE OF HISTORY 

of Nathan Hale, the words of Lincoln, the atti- 
tude of Lee after the Civil War, are in them- 
selves sermons by the way. 

When we add to this the balanced judgment 
and the developed sense of cause and result that 
history properly taught in the higher elementary 
grades will produce, one may venture to assert 
that the study of history, while it may not al- 
ways determine the conduct of a child, at least 
sets before him an ethical standard, a moral ideal 
that makes for righteousness and good citizen- 
ship. 



II 

THE HISTORY STORY IN THE PRIMARY GRADES 

The oral history story 

The child's first knowledge of history comes 
through the lips of his teacher. It is the oral his- 
tory story that he hears at first in the lower grades. 

From his teacher he learns of primitive peoples, 
of the Indians and their fascinating life. He lis- 
tens to great adventure stories and the biographies 
of heroes. These stories appeal to his imagination 
because they are pictorial and dramatic in form. 

How should the teacher present the oral his- 
tory story successfully? 

The first requirement is enthusiasm. The teacher 
must desire to make the story alive and interest- 
ing. She must determine to put herself into the 
story. She must really enjoy telling it. If she 
succeeds in feeling the story, she will create an 
atmosphere of reality that affects her voice, her 
gestures, her presentation of the material. The 
children respond at once to this mental attitude. 
The story is immediately real and convincing and 
it holds their interest and attention. 

10 



THE HISTORY STORY 

The second requirement is adequate prepara- 
tion. The teacher should know thoroughly the 
historical material from which the story is to 
be made. The child should feel that the teacher 
speaks from " some inexhaustible source of knowl- 
edge." The hasty reading of a primary history 
will not give sufficient background. The more 
the teacher knows about the subject, the more 
skillful she will be in translating it into primary 
language. 

The third step is the outline, the arrangement 
of the facts in logical sequence. The teacher uses 
here her dramatic sense, eliminates unessential 
details, puts in the picturesque or vital event, 
and if possible arranges the story so that a climax 
may be secured. 

Lastly, the story outline must be clothed in the 
teacher's own words. 

These words are very important, for the story 
must be told in language the child clearly under- 
stands. 

New and difficult words should be written on 
the board and explained when they are used. 
Children enjoy knowing new words, but become 
confused and lose interest when the story is told 
in language above their heads. 

On the other hand, the use of good English 

ii 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

is absolutely essential. Slang, commonplace ex- 
pressions, localisms, and poor grammatical forms 
stand out painfully and react on the children. In 
order to "talk down" to the children, it is not 
necessary to mutilate the English language. 

In some history stories, a question skillfully 
inserted at intervals intensifies the interest. How 
do you suppose the Pilgrims felt when Samoset 
appeared? Why do you think the Pilgrims were 
wise to ask the Indians to their Thanksgiving din- 
ner? How many do you think went back when 
the Mayflower sailed for home? Such questions 
make the children think. The story grows more 
real as the tale advances. The introduction of 
questioning into a story depends on the nature 
of the material. Sometimes it would break the 
continuity of the narrative and destroy the effect 
of the story. The life of Lincoln, for example, 
when first told in the primary grades should be 
told as a whole. 

One of the most essential features in primary 
history stories is the personal element. Children 
do not understand or care about the general or 
abstract. For instance, in teaching the life of 
the colonial children, weave the story around the 
adventures of some particular hero or heroine. 
The class will be more interested in the various 

12 



THE HISTORY STORY 

experiences of Little Hans who lived in old Ho- 
boken or Old Manhattan than they will be in a 
descriptive talk on the way the Dutch children 
lived long ago. Many of the writers of the pri- 
mary history readers recognize this fact and the 
history material is presented in fictional form. 
We have "Priscilla's Day in School/' instead of 
"How Our Grandmothers Went to School." 

This is especially true in teaching the Indian 
work used so largely in the first and second 
grades. The teacher should read enough to ob- 
tain a necessary knowledge of the facts. She then 
conveys this information by a fascinating series 
of little tales about some imaginary Indian child 
hero or heroine. Through the medium of the 
story she teaches much about Indian life, the 
wigwam, the family affairs, play, work, journeys, 
etc. The Hiawatha stories use the same method 
in poetic form. 

When a primary history reader is used instead 
of the oral story, the teacher must still be able 
to supplement the book with her own personal 
story-telling power. 

The mere reading of the history story in class 
by the children is not sufficient. To make the 
work effective the teacher must vitalize the book. 
She must know more about the story than the 

13 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

book gives. A little outside reading will help her 
to reinforce the book and give color to the narra- 
tive. By questioning during the reading lesson 
or at its close she can bring out the essentials of 
the story. 

Some interesting story material for the pri- 
mary grades would be stories of the Vikings, 
the story of Robin Hood and his times, the 
story of Columbus, Indian stories of all types 
including the Cliff-Dwellers; the story of John 
Smith and old Virginia, the Pilgrim story, the 
story of William Penn and his city, old Dutch sto- 
ries, the story of Daniel Boone, and of the boy- 
hood life of Washington and Lincoln. 

All primary history stories should be illumined 
by the use of illustrative material, dramatiza- 
tion, exercises in English composition, and vari- 
ous devices. The use of illustrative material, 
pictures, sand tables, manual work, methods of 
dramatization and review are discussed as special 
topics later in this book. 



Ill 

THE BIOGRAPHICAL STORY IN THE 
INTERMEDIATE GRADES 

As the story is the child's doorway to any histori- 
cal knowledge in the primary years, so it remains 
the entrance to his knowledge of the past in the 
intermediate grades. 

The story here, however, becomes definite 
biography. It ceases to be the telling of some dis- 
connected dramatic incident and presents the 
color and atmosphere of a past period through 
the biography of some heroic or famous figure 
whose career portrays the life of his time. 

Instead of the story of the Pilgrims and the 
first Thanksgiving Day, for instance, we give 
the life of William Bradford or Miles Standish 
or Roger Williams. The narrative brings in the 
English background from which the Puritan 
sprang. It describes conditions in America in 
much more detail and shows the character of the 
men who laid the foundations of New England. 

All intermediate biography should have certain 
definite aims in its presentation. 

*5 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

First, it must appeal to the heroic and dra- 
matic element which is so strongly developed in 
the child in the fifth and sixth grades. The 
stories studied must, therefore, be interesting in 
themselves and should be simply and vividly 
told. 

Secondly, it should, through the medium of 
the story, bring out the character of some espe- 
cial period or the life of some particular epoch. 
The story of Peter Stuyvesant is an example of a 
biography which conveys much excellent colo- 
nial history. His life shows old Dutch days in 
New York, its quaint customs and traditions. 
It tells also of the Swedes and their homes on the 
Delaware. The story is carried on to the changes 
under English rule, and the child sees New York 
emerging from New Amsterdam. All this history 
may be taught in a very interesting fashion as 
part of the entertaining biography of the hot- 
headed, sturdy old Dutch Governor. 

Thirdly, the biography used should have some 
chronological sequence or some definite develop- 
ing idea or unifying thought. A mere heteroge- 
neous collection of tales without any motive or 
definite order leaves a vague and disconnected 
impression on the child's mind. If he reads the 
life of Robert Fulton one day, then takes up the 

16 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL STORY 

exploits of George Rogers Clark for the next 
lesson, he races mentally back and forth across 
the historical field and loses all sense of true de- 
velopment. But if he takes, for example, a group 
of inventors, Eli Whitney, Robert Fulton, Sam- 
uel Morse, and Thomas Edison, the study of 
these stories is the study of one great phase of 
American history. 

Fourthly, sixth-grade biography should pre- 
pare the way for the connected textbook study 
of history in the higher elementary grades. Mod- 
ern educators generally favor the use of European 
hero stories in this grade as a natural and proper 
background for the American history which is 
to follow. The European stories are interesting 
and contain much that is vivid and dramatic. 
They reveal a civilization especially appealing to 
children of this age. Above all they explain to 
the American of the present the meaning of the 
history he is to study. American history did not 
begin in 1492, and the European story work 
shows the boy or girl the world from which the 
first Americans came. They describe his ances- 
tors and their life in Europe and widen his con- 
ception of the past. 

If the European biographies are used, they 
should be carefully selected and should touch 

17 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

only on certain high lights in the historical 
past. 

The story of Leonidas teaches the stern pa- 
triotism of the ancient Spartan. The glory and 
beauty of Athens are seen in the life of Themis- 
tocles. 

A day at the, Olympic games reveals the 
splendor of old Greece. The out-of-door life, 
the open-air plays, the great athletic contests 
are all deeply interesting to children. 

The story of Julius Caesar will give a glimpse 
of one of the world's greatest men and also a pic- 
ture of the wonderful Roman civilization of his 
day. 

Medieval life may be shown by various group 
stories, such as tales of William the Conqueror, 
of Joan of Arc, King Alfred, King Richard 
the Lion-Hearted, Frederick Barbarossa, Robert 
Bruce, etc. 

The stories present splendid and exciting 
figures, whose names should be known to every 
child. Through these heroes he meets crusaders 
and monks, peasants and princes. He should not 
only learn of the life in the castles and manors, 
but he should become somewhat acquainted with 
medieval industrial life. He should be introduced 
to the labor gilds, so like our labor unions, and 

18 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL STORY 

to the great fairs where one did one's shopping for 
the year. 

The Renaissance, which is the ground floor of 
all American history, may be shown by the lives 
of persons like Marco Polo, John of Guttenberg, 
Queen Elizabeth, and Sir Walter Raleigh. Here 
the stories emphasize the changed conditions in 
Europe. We see new ideas, new inventions, new 
methods of travel, new desires for trade, and the 
boy or girl understands Vasco da Gama and 
Columbus. 

There are many books of hero stories or bio- 
graphical sketches in use in the intermediate 
grades. Few of these possess any developing idea. 
The teacher can use them successfully, however, 
by arranging the stories in groups according to 
her own plan or by supplementing the material 
given by outside material from other books. If 
the children have access to a public library, or 
have any reference library in school, they can 
find new anecdotes or information about the 
character they are studying and add to the inter- 
est of the class. 

After the story has been read and studied care- 
fully, it may often be dramatized for review work; 
the class may arrange the scenes and choose the 
characters. Such a story as the life of Marco 

19 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

Polo lends itself delightfully to sixth-grade 
drama, or, for that matter, any hero story which 
is adapted to intermediate grade work is capable 
of dramatic interpretation. Further discussion 
of this method will be found under the topic 
Dramatization. 

Interesting games may be invented for review 
devices after a class has studied a number of bi- 
ographies. Such a game as "Who am I?" is an 
illustration of this method. One child leaves the 
room and the class decide what character he is 
to personify. Upon his return they skillfully 
question him as to his identity. The more he 
knows about the past material he has been read- 
ing, the quicker he is able to guess who he is 
supposed to represent. Biographical story work 
may be illustrated by pictures which the children 
can collect, by blackboard drawing, by English 
theme work in novel or interesting form; as, 
"Imagine you were living in Boonesboro with 
Daniel Boone. Describe a day's experience 
there' ' ; or, "Write a page or two pretending it 
is the diary of Robert Morris and that he is trying 
to raise money for the army in Philadelphia in 
1777 "; or, if the subject-matter be European his- 
tory, " Imagine you were dining with Robin Hood 
in Sherwood Forest. Describe the scene"; or, 

20 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL STORY 

"You saw Queen Elizabeth knight Sir Walter 
Raleigh. Write an account of the event." 

Variety in review and a unified plan in teach- 
ing biography in the intermediate grades will 
make this work vigorous, valuable, and ex- 
tremely interesting. 



IV 

THE USE OF THE HISTORY TEXTBOOK 

The serious study of history in the elementary 
schools is necessarily from a textbook. What- 
ever of definite knowledge is possessed by the 
child who leaves the upper elementary grades 
to enter the high school, or to begin his life in 
the world, has been derived from his study of 
a textbook. 

Ignorance of the use of this book is, however, 
most common in our schools. "I studied a red 
book/' "My history book had a brown cover," 
is the only knowledge the child possesses after 
a year or even two years' intimate acquaintance 
with a textbook. He does not know the author, 
the title of the book, or the method used in 
writing it. He has never used any of its sug- 
gestions or very carefully examined its maps or 
pictures. 

When a child begins the study of a new text- 
book some time should be given to a careful 
examination of its contents. The title and the 
author's name should be learned. Such ques- 

22 



THE HISTORY TEXTBOOK 

tions may be asked as, " Who wrote this book?" 
" What do we know about him?" "Who are the 
publishers?" "What are copyright laws?" etc. 

The preface should be read aloud. The chil- 
dren can usually understand it and they can 
explain the author's aims to the class in their 
own words. The table of contents should be 
carefully looked over. How has the subject been 
arranged? What names are given to the great 
periods of history? Why were these names 
used? A class can discuss the meaning of a 
period of history most profitably. American 
history lends itself especially well to this dis- 
cussion. An eighth grade will enjoy investigating 
the question, "Did the colonial period end with 
the Revolutionary War or at some later date?" 

The examination of the textbook should bring 
out the use of the index and the helps in pro- 
nunciation the book offers. Too many children 
depend on the teacher to pronounce for them all 
new or difficult words. They can learn easily how 
to use the pronouncing index and are generally 
proud of their mastery over hard or difficult 
names. 

Interesting material in the appendix should be 
noticed. Does the book contain any great docu- 
ments, as the Declaration of Independence or the 

23 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

Constitution? Why should these documents be 
in the book? Pictures and maps should be ex- 
amined and their uses discussed. More intensive 
study of this material will come in the later 
lessons. The value of the footnotes should be 
emphasized. Some children have apparently 
never been taught to read a footnote in any book. 
The suggestions for review work, questions, out- 
side reference readings, composition subjects 
which the book makes should be noted and their 
value discussed. 

One chapter might be read to show the way the 
author looks at the subject, the kind of words he 
uses, the topics he considers important. 

This serious introduction gives a class a respect 
for and an interest in the textbook w r hich they 
never feel when the book is merely a source of 
superficial knowledge, so many pages of "stuff" 
to be carelessly read each day. 

The amount of labor and thought that goes to 
the making of a book is revealed to the child. 
The subject as well as the book appears to him in 
a broader, deeper, more significant light. The 
book becomes an instrument that he has learned 
to use for his own benefit, and he enjoys his per- 
sonal mastery of its contents and its possibilities. 



V 

THE ASSIGNMENT OF THE LESSON 

The teacher who says hastily as the bell rings 
for the close of the recitation, "Take the next six 
pages, or study half the next chapter/ ' has failed 
in her method of presentation and lost an oppor- 
tunity to vitalize the next day's lesson. 

The assignment of the next lesson is really the 
fundamental part of the daily work and is espe- 
cially important in the elementary grades, 
i Some of the faults in lesson assignment which 
teachers often find it difficult to overcome are: — 

a. Lack of sufficient time for an adequate 

study of the advance work. 

b. Careless, indefinite, or hastily worded as- 

signments. 

c. Failure to emphasize essential points or 

special difficulties in the new material. 

d. No participation by the class in the lesson 

assignment. 
So important is the lesson assignment that 
some successful teachers use a third of the time 
of the recitation period in preparation for the 

25 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

next lesson. Whether the beginning or end of 
the period be used for the lesson assignment de- 
pends on the subject-matter of the lesson. 

Ordinarily, the beginning of the class period 
seems the natural time for this work. There is 
less sense of hurry. The class and the teacher are 
both free from the strain and excitement of the 
lesson and are able clearly to examine the new 
material. It is practically impossible to stop an 
interesting lesson before its climax has been 
reached, merely to discuss the next day's work. 
In general, therefore, teachers find the beginning 
of the period the better time. 

However, when the new material requires the 
day's lesson to be clearly understood, it is wiser 
to discuss the advance at the close of the period, 
but the teacher should see to it that sufficient 
time be given fully to consider the new work. 

As the history lesson is taught topically the 
subject-matter falls in natural sequences. The 
children may be trained to decide by examination 
of the textbook how far the next lesson should 
properly extend. For illustration, if the lesson is 
to be the Bank question in the Administration 
of Andrew Jackson, the class will see that the 
subject extends into the Administration of Van 
Buren, and a logical assignment of material will 

26 



ASSIGNMENT OF THE LESSON 

be made; or if the lesson be on the Kansas- 
Nebraska Act, the children will realize the ne- 
cessity of studying the results of the Act and will 
add the civil war in Kansas to the lesson as part 
of the topic for the day. 

The teacher may suggest questions or problems 
whose answers lie in the next day's lesson, thus 
arousing interest in the solution of these unknown 
topics. 

Sometimes the assignment may take the class 
into material in other parts of the book. After 
studying the Monroe Doctrine, a class may look 
up the various applications of the Doctrine in the 
later history. This will involve a study of the 
index and other parts of the book, or the use of 
reference material. Children enjoy these mental 
excursions and gain power in handling and de- 
veloping a topic. 

In talking over the next lesson with a class the 
children may suggest from their own examina- 
tion of the text special points to be studied. If a 
map is in the lesson, what use shall be made of it? 
What do the pictures mean? Why are they used? 
What special references are to be read? 

This is the time to arrange for various class 
exercises or devices or special topic work, to 
answer questions and explain difficulties. 

27 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

The statement of all requirements either to the 
class or to individual pupils should be very clearly 
made. All teachers know by experience how slow 
some children are in grasping a new thought or 
carrying out a new idea. The teacher must there- 
fore be very definite in her language and explana- 
tions, and especially so when dealing with a new 
method or giving new information. 

The children should be required later to state 
what the lesson is and show why it was assigned 
in this manner. 

Lesson assignments of this character, instead 
of being perfunctory and mechanical commands 
issued by the teacher and received by the pupils 
with resentment or indifference, become inter- 
esting exercises in the day's work in which all 
participate and all enjoy. 



VI 

THE STUDY RECITATION 

Teaching the child to study 

One of the universal problems the teacher meets 
in her work is the inability of the average child 
to study a lesson and recite clearly and definitely 
upon it. "I read the lesson over five times"; 
11 1 studied for two hours on that lesson"; "I 
thought I knew it" — these are daily comments 
one hears from pupils who have failed in the 
day's work. These excuses are usually sincere. 
The pupil has tried to learn the lesson. He has 
made a definite mental effort, but he has failed 
because he did not know how to attack the 
problem. This difficulty is by no means confined 
to children in the elementary school. It is appar- 
ent in every high-school class, and many students 
graduate from the universities who do not know 
how to study. 

Therefore the sooner the boy or girl in the ele- 
mentary school is taught to study, the better for 
his future career. 

29 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

The most serious difficulties in studying a 
history lesson are usually caused by: — 

a. No real comprehension of the meaning of 

the words of the text or reference book. 

b. Lack of attention or concentration when 

reading. 

c. Lack of analyzing power, no ability to pick 

out the important events or topics in a 
lesson. 

d. Inability to see the relationship of cause and 

effect in a subject. 

e. Bad memorizing habits, the result of poor 

teaching. 
/. Tendency to depend on the teacher to ex- 
plain the lesson in class. 
How little children really understand of the 
meaning of the text they are reading is often 
startling to the teacher when the test is made. 
The pupil reads the words glibly enough, but 
when forced to explain them reveals an ignorance 
that is astonishing. A bright girl in an eighth 
grade recently recited fluently on the use of the 
"underground railway' ' by fugitive slaves. An 
accidental phrase, however, showed that she 
thought the "railway" was an underground 
subway actually existing in the earth. Examina- 
tion of the class discovered a third of the pupils 

30 



THE STUDY RECITATION 

who held the same opinion. The boy who asked, 
11 Why do they always send clergymen to foreign 
countries?" when discussing the "X. Y. Z." af- 
fair had simply never grasped the various mean- 
ings attached to the word "minister." These 
mistakes were most natural ones. 

The failure to understand words and phrases 
used in the books deadens interest and muddles 
the child's point of view. Many of the old text- 
books were written in a style and with a vocabu- 
lary that "darkened counsel' ' as far as the child 
was concerned. Even if trained to seek refuge 
in the dictionary when in trouble, the narrative 
had no power to hold his attention. The dull 
and difficult language wearied and disgusted him. 
Our modern elementary-school books are written 
with a simplicity of language, a vigor and charm 
that have greatly lessened this difficulty. The 
teacher should carefully attack this problem, 
however, and obtain for her class the most inter- 
esting and the best written textbook if she is for- 
tunate enough to have a voice in the selection of 
books. 

Children naturally find it difficult to concen- 
trate. The incidents of the classroom or affairs 
at home are more exciting than the story in the 
book. They read with their lips, but do not "in- 

3i 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

wardly digest" the material. Children have to 
be trained to concentrate as they are trained to 
add or multiply. The careful reading of the text 
twice with every faculty alert is worth more than 
reading it five times in the fashion so often used 
in school. 

That children do not discriminate in studying 
a lesson between the important and the unes- 
sential is the result of a lack of real comprehen- 
sion of the subject. A child is asked the cause 
of the Revolution. He will give an account of the 
Boston Tea Party, the one dramatic little inci- 
dent meaning more to him than the abstract dis- 
cussion of the British system of taxation. It is 
only after he understands the whole situation 
clearly that his mind works logically and he is 
able to see the larger event from the smaller or 
trace the relationship we call " cause and effect." 

The eagerness with which a child will tell a 
story or anecdote he has found in the text, in- 
stead of knowing the really vital material in the 
lesson, sometimes discourages the teacher. But 
the use of the outline, the effect of the study 
recitation, help discrimination, and a child grad- 
ually learns this power through daily thought 
and practice. 

It is scarcely necessary to discuss the fatal 

32 



THE STUDY RECITATION 

result on the child's mind of the purely memo- 
rizing habit. The old idea of studying a history 
lesson by learning verbally so many paragraphs 
in the textbook has become extinct in all well- 
taught schools. There are some poems, quota- 
tions, dates, selections from documents that he 
should know "by heart," but the failure of mere 
verbal knowledge of the words of a book to de- 
velop thought or personal expression needs no 
demonstration. 

If, then, the question of studying the lesson 
successfully be such a difficult one, how shall the 
busy elementary teacher meet the problem? The 
study recitation is a helpful method which can be 
used in any grade. The child prepares the work 
with the teacher, the teacher controlling and 
directing his study. 

A study recitation conducted in a higher ele- 
mentary grade begins with a silent reading of the 
text. The presence of the teacher creates con- 
centration and forces attention. After the class 
has read over the material, she can test them on 
their comprehension of the words. Paragraphs 
may be read aloud and their meaning explained 
by the members of the class. Words and phrases 
not understood absolutely should be made clear 
by the use of the dictionary and the blackboard. 

33 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

Then comes the training in the development of 
the thought. The teacher may question, the 
class using the open book. What are the most 
important paragraphs? Why? What events 
should be especially studied? What events in the 
lesson are connected with one another; with 
events which we have studied about before? etc. 

The children should prove to their own satis- 
faction that their answers are correct. 

Geographical allusions should be looked up. 
In ordinary study a pupil will read the word 
" Omaha" in the text. He has a hazy idea of its 
location, but he does not take the trouble to find 
it on the map. When the recitation comes he is 
unable to discover the city. The study recitation 
teaches him that geography is part of the regular 
lesson. 

If reference reading is in the assignment, the 
selections may be read aloud by different mem- 
bers of the class and their use discussed. A poem 
or piece of fiction may be given by the class to one 
of its members for special study. He may report 
on this later or recite it during the regular recita- 
tion. Finally an outline should be placed on the 
board, the class deciding what the topic heads 
shall be. If dates are necessary they should be 
chosen by the class after discussion and learned. 

34 



THE STUDY RECITATION 

Of course different devices or different exer- 
cises may be used adapted to the varying needs 
of the different children. In order to train chil- 
dren in concentration a good exercise is to give a 
certain amount of time for silent reading and then 
have the children place on the board, or be able 
to talk about, the essential topics they have dis- 
covered in the lesson. 

Some pupils will do much more than others in 
a given time. The teacher can then help the 
slower children, show them how to read a para- 
graph and get from it the vital thought. 

The elementary teacher with the crowded 
schedule will ask how she is to find time for work 
like this. How often should the study recitation 
take place? What should be done about home 
study? etc. 

Teaching the child how to study is really the 
most important part of the teacher's work. 
When a class is beginning to study seriously from 
books, these study recitations should take place as 
often as the teacher feels they are necessary. Use 
them even if some of the "book knowledge" must 
be sacrificed and if some of the recitation time be 
omitted. The child who has learned to study will 
assimilate material much more rapidly than other 
children and little time will be lost in the end. 

35 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

Until a child has been taught to study his 
history lesson properly, home study is often a 
farce, and it is wiser to have him do work of a 
different character at home, the history lesson 
being learned in school. 

When he has grasped the essentials, the teacher 
may help him in his home study by certain exer- 
cises which can be given out when the lesson is 
assigned. For instance, if the lesson be on the 
settlement of New Jersey, the teacher may ask 
the child to bring in a little diagram or drawing 
showing the different persons who ruled the 
colony and the kinds of government they estab- 
lished. The material on New Jersey in the text- 
book is usually brief and uninteresting. The 
effort to make a little drawing or diagram at 
home that will represent New Jersey's past his- 
tory will force the child to concentrate on the 
text. He will pick it out topically and in making 
his drawing he will learn the lesson. 

Outlines made at home from the text are help- 
ful in teaching children to study. Composition 
work is useful when the subject-matter has to be 
found from several books. 

The teacher must, of course, guard against too 
difficult exercises or too long assignments. The 
process of teaching children to study is a difficult 

36 



THE STUDY RECITATION 

one, but it is eminently worth while. It is a wise 
arrangement of time to shorten the period of 
" hearing' ' the lesson recited and introduce more 
definite and intelligent instruction on how to 
study the lesson. 

If results are often disheartening and develop- 
ment in this line seems slow and irregular, the 
teacher must not be discouraged. Do not expect 
too much at first, but believe that effort in this 
direction is the foundation of education. 



VII 

THE USE OF OUTSIDE READING 

In the children's reading-room of a city library 
not long ago, a ragged little boy inquired for a 
book " about Robin Hood and King John." He 
went away happy with Howard Pyle's classic 
under his arm. A moment or two later another 
boy whose face and accent showed his foreign 
parentage demanded the Life of Napoleon. He 
was followed by a little girl who wanted to see 
a picture of Queen Elizabeth: "A colored one, 
please, to show my class." 

The librarian in charge said with a smile to 
an interested observer: "It is wonderful how 
much history they read. The schools do it, you 
see." Surely no finer tribute could have been 
paid those schools. They were giving their pu- 
pils the reading habit which means knowledge, 
pleasure, and lifelong inspiration. 

Outside reading should be a vital factor in all 
history work in the elementary school as well as 
in the high school. It gives the child a different 
point of view from the textbook and educates 

33 



OUTSIDE READING 

him in thinking for himself. The boy or girl who 
is able to explain an allusion in the lesson from 
his reference reading, or even to criticize the 
statements of the textbook, has developed his 
judgment and mental power. Reference reading 
also teaches the practical use of libraries, indexes, 
card catalogues, and bibliographies. 

Although it is impossible to do all the reading 
suggested by many textbook authors, some of it 
should be surely done if the books can be pro- 
cured. The class who uses one textbook only and 
has never attempted any reference work has lost 
many delightful moments. 

The arrangement of recommended readings 
may be classified under: (i) Source books; (2) 
general, simple works covering the whole field; 
(3) the fuller histories; (4) the standard histories; 
(5) books on special topics; (6) biography; (7) 
poetry; (8) fiction. 

Source readings, or selections from material 
written by persons at the time of an event, are 
often considered too difficult for elementary- 
grade work and few teachers use them. 

There are source readings, however, which 
pupils in the seventh or eighth, or even the sixth, 
grade can thoroughly understand and enjoy. 
Nothing so illuminates and makes real the past 

39 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

as a good source selection. After reading "At 
Washington's Headquarters," a description of a 
dinner at Morristown with the General written 
by a French officer, a little girl said eagerly: 
"Just think of Washington sitting at the table 
eating nuts and making jokes for two hours. It 
makes him so alive." 

An eighth-grade boy read aloud Dickens's 
account of his journey on one of the early 
Potomac steamboats, and the class laughed 
heartily over the clever satire and the crude con- 
ditions so humorously portrayed. Dr. Waldo's 
description of his lif e at Valley Forge, the smoky 
cakes cooked out-of-doors, the bitter cold, and 
the way he darned his stockings, impress the his- 
toric scene on the children far more forcibly than 
the most eloquent paragraph in the textbook. 

Even the old English and quaint spelling of 
some sources are not impossible for children if 
they are carefully explained. Parts of the so- 
called "Diary of Columbus," Marquette's ac- 
count of his voyage down the Mississippi, or 
Juet's "Discovery of the Hudson," are usable 
examples of sources that make the past "alive." 
Such a book as Hart's Source Book of American 
History, from which these illustrations are drawn, 
is invaluable in teaching American history. 

40 



OUTSIDE READING 

In lower grades studying European hero 
stories some sources can be used occasionally. 
The children enjoy reading parts of the Odyssey 
or Plutarch's Lives and many of the folk-lore 
stories. The correlation of history with literature 
is here especially possible and delightful. 

The teacher should never use sources that her 
pupils cannot thoroughly comprehend and dis- 
cuss. A good textbook generally suggests source 
readings which are practical, but the teacher 
should examine every selection before it is as- 
signed to the class. 

Even if a teacher finds it difficult to procure or 
use the sources, she can certainly provide the 
class with several copies of different textbooks. 
The children can use these books for daily refer- 
ence and read over the lesson in them. They 
soon learn to compare statements and points of 
view, and the class discussion is broadened and 
brightened. In using these other texts, they 
should know titles and authors and be able to 
pick out the strong points of the different books. 
They develop the critical faculty rapidly and 
will soon say that one book "has better descrip- 
tions in it," another more interesting pictures, 
or a third is "easy to understand," etc. This 
comparative study is valuable and interesting, 

4i 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

and the children are especially happy when they 
are able to correct a statement or present another 
explanation of an event from the one advanced 
by their one textbook. 

In the use of the larger histories or biographies, 
the teacher may arouse the class interest by 
reading aloud some vivid or well- written de- 
scription of a historical scene from an author 
like Parkman, Winsor, Fiske, Elson, or Rhodes. 
They will enjoy the color and detail and uncon- 
sciously the style. 

The teacher may talk about the book and 
the author, and later other selections may be 
occasionally read by various members of the 
class. Even if the majority of the children read 
but a few pages in these books, they are intro- 
duced to the great writers and know their names 
and realize their power. 

In presenting special topics to the class, the 
child who gives the topic should do some refer- 
ence work. When he presents it, he should state 
the names of the authors he has read, the book 
or books used. This trains both the speaker and 
the class in estimating the value of authority. 
The bright little twelve-year-old who, when the 
class disputed his statements about the battle of 
Saratoga, answered proudly, " John Fiske says so 

42 



OUTSIDE READING 

and he ought to know/' had confidence in his 
own research work. 

In the great field of fiction and poetry there are 
unlimited treasures for the child. Some famous 
historical stories, such as The Man Without a 
Country, The Perfect Tribute, Page's Two Little 
Confederates, should be read by every elementary- 
school pupil. Paul Revere } s Ride, The Song of 
Marion's Men, Captain, My Captain, The Blue 
and the Gray, the closing lines of Lowell's Com- 
memoration Ode, are well-known examples of 
historical poems that should be f amiliar to every 
class. 

The story or the poem should be introduced as 
part of the lesson and should be associated with 
the person or event it commemorates. Many of 
these selections are used for recitations on special 
days or in school celebrations; nevertheless, it 
does not hurt to repeat them, and their presenta- 
tion in the class recitation enlivens and varies the 
class period. 

One form of outside reference work which 
should be cultivated when the material is within 
the reach of the class is the magazine or newspaper 
reference. . Interesting pictures, short articles on 
historical subjects which appear in the good 
magazines or Sunday editions of the newspapers, 

43 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

are often useful and interesting to the children. 
In some communities pupils in the higher ele- 
mentary grades are able to contribute a good 
deal of such material. It should be placed on the 
bulletin board and discussed in the class recita- 
tion. 

In using the newspaper and magazine articles, 
however, teach the children to ask the question, 
"Is it true?" While many articles are valuable 
and enjoyable, the idea that whatever is printed 
is true should be carefully eradicated from the 
child's mind. 

Children are, of course, unable to estimate the 
truth or falsity of statements in a newspaper, but 
they can be shown by references to textbooks or 
authentic histories how information may be 
tested. The teacher should prove to a boy who 
brings an inaccurate or sensational article to 
class how worthless such material really is. No 
lesson is more valuable than this. Many of the 
superficial judgments and ignorant prejudices we 
find among adult thinkers are born of credulity 
and careless newspaper reading. If the history 
lesson teaches the child early in life to weigh 
evidence before he accepts a statement, it has 
justified its place in the educational curriculum. 

Teachers in country schools or in towns pos- 

44 



OUTSIDE READING 

sessing no public library may acknowledge the 
value of outside reading, but find themselves 
very scantily supplied with necessary books. 

By giving a few school or class entertainments 
a little money may be raised for a library, and 
fifteen or twenty dollars carefully expended will 
give much pleasure to a class. This library should 
be in the classroom on open shelves accessi- 
ble to all the children. Many a restless boy or 
whispering girl would be less of a problem to the 
teacher if some interesting books were in the 
room which they could use freely in study periods. 
If the books are easy of access, the pupils will 
read much more than the assigned work. 

If the teacher uses a city or town library, books 
for the classroom may be obtained at a loan 
library and kept for a certain time by permission 
of the library authorities. Many city libraries 
are most helpful assistants in history teaching 
and will supply pictures, maps, and excellent 
illustrative material when asked for aid. 

The teacher should show her class how to use 
the library itself. She can explain how card 
catalogues are used, how the books are to be 
asked for, how books must be cared for. She 
should visit the library with the children and 
demonstrate the method to them. 

45 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

While the familiar, daily use of a large city 
library is very valuable to a group of children, the 
intimate, intensive effect of the small classroom 
bookshelf is often more practical and vital in its 
results. 

Elementary-school teachers are very busy 
persons and have little time for much personal 
outside reading; but the teacher who desires to 
bring charm and power to her work must refresh 
herself at the sources of inspiration. She must 
know more than the textbook, whatever grade 
she teaches. 

In order to assign reference reading properly or 
interest the children in books, she must herself 
be a lover of " noble words." The occasional 
reading of a good historical novel, a chapter from 
a good history, the newspaper and the magazine 
will give her the refreshment, the mental out- 
look, the vision that means success in teaching. 



VIII 

THE RECITATION, 

The recitation in history teaching is the time 
when the child expresses his own conception of 
the knowledge he has gathered. 

In the recitation he shows the results of his 
study, his power of assimilation, his ability to 
clothe his ideas in words, his sense of cause and 
effect and of the relationship of events. 

The recitation should develop and broaden his 
outlook, correct his mistakes, suggest new lines 
of thought, create enthusiasm, and especially 
help him to express himself. 

Too often the recitation is merely a mechani- 
cal device through which the teacher discovers 
whether the child has learned the information 
in a certain textbook. Even if the old-fashioned 
"parrot recitation" — i.e., children repeating lit- 
erally the words or paragraphs in a book — has 
been discarded, the lesson is still conducted in a 
manner that offers little mental development to 
the pupil. The teacher asks questions, the chil- 
dren answer them as briefly as possible. The 

47 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

teacher sometimes talks or explains the principal 
topic in the lesson, the children taking very little 
part in the exercise, which really becomes a 
recitation by the teacher to the class. 

The conduct of the recitation is therefore a 
practical problem in pedagogy whose successful 
solution demands the most careful preparation 
on the teacher's part. It means originality in 
questioning, variety in method, the power to 
arouse in the child his natural reasoning ability 
and his fondness for discussion. It must present 
knowledge as an organic whole, yet allow for the 
halting statements and the slow thought processes 
of the immature mind. The teacher must not 
do the work, yet on the other hand much outside 
information must necessarily come through the 
medium of the teacher. 

How, then, is this balance to be preserved? 
How shall the recitation become a stimulant to 
the pupil? How teach him to work, how create 
in him a desire for self-expression, how help him 
to see the true values in the material he has 
studied? 

No one method can be used absolutely or con- 
tinuously. Different kinds of subject-matter 
need different treatments, but certain suggestions 
may be helpful. 

48 



THE RECITATION 

Among the various types of recitations used in 
the elementary schools we find the question-and- 
answer recitation, the topical recitation, the class 
discussion of a subject, sometimes called the 
socialized recitation, and too often the teacher 
recitation or the recitation which is largely a lec- 
ture by the teacher to the class. 

The question-and-answer recitation means that 
the teacher questions on the text or the assigned 
work and the pupils answer these questions. 
There are certain kinds of material w r here such 
a method is valuable and interesting, but the 
value depends upon the nature of the questions 
asked and the kind of answer that is accepted. 
Questions on the assigned text that ask only for 
facts in the book, or questions which follow the 
textbook topics, are of little real value. They 
carry no mental stimulus and cause no thought 
reaction. If the book states that the Alien and 
Sedition Laws in John Adams's Administration 
were very unpopular, the question, "What were 
the Alien and Sedition Laws?" or even, "Why 
were the Alien and Sedition Laws unpopular?" 
does not especially interest the child. The 
teacher is merely asking for facts, but if the 
question be asked, "Why is it said that now the 
Federalist Party committed suicide? " every child 

49 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

will be eager to express an opinion and the ob- 
noxious laws will receive full attention. 

Questions on the text should be as original as 
possible and should demand some thought on 
the pupil's part. The "yes-or-no" question, the 
question that suggests the answer, the vague 
question, the question stated in language the 
child does not fully understand, the question 
which uses the words of the book, should all be 
carefully avoided. 

Questions that combine the facts in some new 
form, questions involving comparison, questions 
that link the present to the past, are all useful 
and interesting. 

Such questions as, "Was the United States jus- 
tified in declaring war against Mexico in 1846?" 
"Was the Fugitive Slave Law fair to the South?" 
"What did the Government learn from the panic 
of 1837?" "What steps were taken to settle the 
slavery question peaceably? " "Why were they 
not effective?" "Did the Western people favor 
nationalism or state sovereignty? Why?" "Why 
did people say in i860, 'Oh, for one day of 
Andrew Jackson'?" are stimulating to children 
even if they answer them crudely and unsatis- 
factorily. 

Definite drill questions must occasionally be 

50 



THE RECITATION 

asked, but usually the same results may be ob- 
tained by varying the form of the question so as 
to present the old idea in some novel or attractive 
guise. 

The ability to frame desirable and worth- 
while questions is a considerable art, but it is 
easily gained by practice, and teachers who 
possess this power enjoy the vigorous response it 
develops in a class. 

The form in which the child answers the teach- 
er's question is in itself a factor in education. 
Many teachers permit children to answer ques- 
tions in monosyllables, or in short, fragmentary 
phrases. No effort is made to insist upon a clear 
and definite expression of the child's thought in 
sentence form. The pitiful scarcity of words that 
is so evident in the American vocabulary to-day 
has one of its sources in the meager answers and 
slip-shod expressions that are received by teach- 
ers in the schools. 

Lincoln, Washington, Daniel Boone, or Henry 
Clay are all designated as "good men," every 
soldier is "brave," each event is said to be 
"important." 

Some children apparently pass through their 
elementary-school career laden with less than a 
half-dozen adjectives as their rhetorical baggage 

Si 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

for all recitations. They should be taught that 
it is as ridiculous to label historical personages 
with the same words as it would be to dress them 
all in the same costume. 

The development of the answer requires con- 
stant vigilance and considerable hard work on 
the teacher's part. It is often easier to accept a 
few faltering words than to struggle with the shy, 
nervous, or stupid intelligence which has evoked 
them. However, the teacher who patiently in- 
sists upon the full or the thoughtful answer will 
be rewarded in time by the growth on the child's 
part of word power, and a sense of word dis- 
crimination and word values will be evident in 
his thinking. 

The topical recitation, which is much used in 
the higher elementary grades, is well fitted to 
develop both thought and language. The topics 
may have been arranged by the children in an 
outline during a study recitation, or they may 
have been developed by the class recitation; 
they may have been studied at home or in school; 
but in order to recite upon them the child must 
exert himself mentally. He has first to find the 
necessary material; secondly, he must organize 
this so that he understands it; then he must be 
able to talk about it more or less fluently. 

52 



THE RECITATION 

This effort to bring together material separated 
by different paragraphs into a definite thought 
connection is valuable mental discipline. 

When the boy who is studying the Missouri 
Compromise gathers under his topic heading, 
through his own independent work, the inven- 
tion of the cotton gin, the Louisiana Purchase, 
and the migration to the West, he is really think- 
ing. In his effort to relate these events and talk 
about them he develops a mental grasp on his- 
torical sequences which finds its outlet in some 
form of expression. He has something to say, 
therefore he is able to say it, and the teacher 
should urge him to discuss the topic as he has 
arranged it fully before the class and explain his 
thought connections and conclusions. The topi- 
cal recitation has therefore developed the boy's 
logical ability, his knowledge of the relationship 
of events, and his power to use the English lan- 
guage. 

The special topic , where the child examines 
facts for himself, usually from outside material, 
and then presents to his class what he has gained, 
is excellent practice in organization and power of 
expression. 

Suppose the lesson touched on the "Open Door 
in China/' in the McKinley Administration, the 

53 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

special topic discussed by some pupil might be 
China To-day. He would look up in newspapers 
and magazines present-day conditions in China 
and sketch these to his class in an interesting little 
talk. Such work illuminates and supplements the 
textbook and gives color to the recitation. 

The special topic must, however, be chosen 
with care. The mere expansion of a textbook 
paragraph or the introduction of a few new de- 
tails into the textbook story is not a true special 
topic. The pupil should offer a genuine contribu- 
tion to the class. Either a new point of view of a 
familiar subject or new subject-matter. 

In assigning special topics an interesting title 
will accentuate the value of the topic to the class; 
instead of a pupil's reciting on the life of John 
Marshall, the statement that, "John Marshall 
found the Constitution paper and made it power, 
found it a skeleton and clothed it with flesh and 
blood/' will arouse class curiosity and the pupil 
who explains the quotation will find an interested 
audience. Such a topic as "the comparison of 
Washington's neutrality troubles with those of 
the present day" is not too difficult for an eighth 
grade and will greatly enliven the history of 
Washington's Administration. 

When the class takes up the Monroe Doctrine, 

54 



THE RECITATION 

a special topic on the word " Pan- Americanism " 
would link the past and the present. 

If the invention of the telegraph is in the les- 
son, a topic on the " wireless" or a comparison of 
Morse with Marconi should be given. 

While the topical recitation has many excellent 
qualities, yet its constant use may result in f or- 
mality and monotony. 

An interesting and vitalizing recitation that 
may be used in the higher grades is the social- 
ized recitation, or the recitation conducted by the 
pupils themselves. 

Let the class prepare to teach the lesson and 
come with questions to ask and problems to be 
settled. Different pupils may preside during the 
period. Questions are propounded by the children 
for open class discussion. Various points may be 
taken up in argument and the members of the 
class will seek to convince one another. 

If they are carefully guided, this form of reci- 
tation becomes a lively and exciting exercise and 
is much enjoyed by the children. 

This method of recitation is well suited to re- 
views where the class is already in possession of 
a certain amount of definite information, or it is 
useful when the textbook lesson offers material 
that has in it some debatable questions. Such a 

55 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

lesson as the period after the Civil War known 
as the " Reconstruction Period/ ' which involves 
a discussion of the treatment of the South by 
Congress and the difficulties that led to the im- 
peachment of Andrew Johnson, would be excel- 
lent material for a socialized lesson. 

The "Critical Period" after the Revolution, 
when the colonies endured the chaos and disor- 
der which results from inefficient government, is 
another interesting topic that would work well 
in a socialized recitation. 

The danger in such an exercise is the tendency 
of one group of children to monopolize the lesson 
time while the shy or backward children take 
little part in the discussion. 

The pupils who lead the recitation must be 
cautioned about this difficulty and urged to ask 
general questions. Many children are natural 
teachers and will be remarkably successful in 
developing the power to think in their compan- 
ions, while a diffident boy or girl will sometimes 
respond to the stimulus of the pupil leader more 
easily than to the expert questioning of the 
teacher. 

Combinations of the various types of recitation 
may be used to give novelty and variety to the 
daily work. 

56 



THE RECITATION 

The prevalence of the so-called u teacher recita- 
tion" has been much criticized by modern edu- 
cators. This very common and natural evil 
arises from several causes. The time is limited 
and the teacher can "pour it in" more quickly 
herself than obtain results by the slow processes 
of individual development. 

Frequently the teacher's enthusiasm and inter- 
est in the subject will cause an over-amplifica- 
tion and illustration of the lesson material. The 
scholarly, over-zealous teacher is the one who 
usually becomes the victim of the talking habit. 

In a recently published study of conditions 
based on the examination of many high-school 
history recitations, the percentage of teacher ac- 
tivity to pupil activity averaged about sixty- 
two per cent to thirty-eight per cent. In other 
words, in a thirty-minute recitation the teacher 
used twenty-four and eight tenths of the time 
and the class fifteen and two tenths of it. While 
this special test was made in high schools, the 
same results might have been obtained in history 
lessons taught in the grammar grades. Every 
thoughtful teacher will be easily convinced of the 
danger of such a method in education. Talking 
is not teaching. The children cease to exert them- 
selves mentally. Their natural instinct for self- 

57 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

expression is suppressed and the lesson produces 
a kind of mental passivity on the child's part. 
He has gained, perhaps, some new knowledge, but 
he did not gain it for himself. 

On the other hand, there are legitimate occa- 
sions when a little talk by the teacher on a topic 
in the lesson is a most precious and stimulating 
gift to a class. A vivid word picture of a great 
event, the clear exposition of a hard problem in 
the lesson, the presentation of new light on a 
question, these manifestations of the teacher's 
power will often give fresh life to the subjects. 

The teacher must not be afraid to use her 
greater knowledge and abundant resources occa- 
sionally in the classroom; what she must guard 
against is the over-use of this power. 

It is really worth more to the child to reason 
out laboriously the causes for the differing points 
of view of the North and South on the tariff 
question than to listen to an explanation, how- 
ever brilliantly expressed by the teacher. 

The boy's conclusions may be meager and in- 
adequate, yet in his future life he must meet and 
solve just such questions. As a voter, as a mem- 
ber of the civic community in which he lives, he 
will be forced to think about social and political 
problems; therefore the most effective training 

58 



THE RECITATION 

his school life can give him in preparation for the 
future is to teach him to be an independent 
thinker. 

The point of view in the choice of material for the 
recitation in the higher elementary grades 

One most important educational function of 
the teacher in the seventh or eighth grade is the 
exercise of the historical judgment in the choice 
of the subject-matter presented to the class. 

The teacher who dwells on the political or mili- 
tary events of history and does not develop the 
economic or social life of a period is out of har- 
mony with modern thought. 

No matter what the textbook may offer, the 
teacher must see to it that the children do not 
receive a one-sided and unscientific conception of 
the past. 

As this is the only history ever seriously 
studied by many American children, the responsi- 
bility of the teacher for a truthful presentation is 
great indeed. In the treatment of seventh-grade 
material the social elements should be largely 
stressed. How the people lived in the colonies, 
their modes of dress, their business methods, 
their religious customs, their pleasures, their ways 
of travel, should be dwelt upon. While colonial 

59 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

politics need not be studied, a seventh grade 
should understand enough about a typical co- 
lonial government to see that the State Gov- 
ernments of to-day are directly descended from 
the old colonial system. The simplest outline on 
the board will reveal this to a class and teach 
them the continuity of history. The false idea 
that the colonists were horribly oppressed by the 
mother country until the Revolution set them 
free should be eradicated. 

In discussing the causes of the Revolution in- 
teresting devices and stimulating questions may 
be used to bring out both sides in that famous 
controversy. 

A class should be taught the modern attitude 
toward the Revolution, which is that the Revo- 
lution was really a Civil War. Many English- 
men, as Pitt and Burke, sympathized with the 
colonists, while in America thousands of persons 
disliked separation and believed the cause of the 
mother country the just one. Hatred of England 
and the inculcation of false and one-sided opin- 
ions should be carefully avoided. Much of the 
unreasoning dislike of Great Britain found among 
certain Americans to-day is due to the erroneous 
teaching they have received in the elementary 
schools. 

60 



THE RECITATION 

While showing the justice of the American 
cause, the English arguments should be clearly 
understood. 

Members of a class will enjoy personifying 
speakers in the British Parliament who are urging 
the passage of the Stamp Act, as well as their 
antagonists in America who are advocating its 
repeal in the Colonial Congress. 

The modern government of colonies is an 
excellent special topic to study during this 
period. "How Canada and Australia are gov- 
erned to-day," "How the United States gov- 
erns the Philippines/ ' are interesting subjects to 
present to a class. 

No period in history is richer in biographical 
studies than the Revolution. Many fascinating 
comparisons are possible here. George III and 
Samuel Adams, Andre and Nathan Hale, General 
Gates and General Schuyler, Franklin discussing 
politics with Louis XVI, Marion and Cornwallis 
in the Carolinas, are illustrations of the dramatic 
and personal element whose study by the children 
will add flavor to the well-known narrative. 

While local conditions should influence the 
study of military events, there are certain defi- 
nite battles or campaigns, as the battle of Tren- 
ton or the Burgoyne campaign, whose historical 

61 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

effects demand that their story be studied by a 
class. 

To eliminate all military history would be 
as unhistorical as to study only military history. 
The Declaration of Independence without Valley 
Forge would be a study of a dead document. 
One is as necessary as the other. 

In the critical and formative period which 
followed the Revolution, a seventh grade can 
clearly understand the economic storm and stress 
of the times and the dangerous problems that 
confronted the new State. Dramatization is an 
effective method in teaching the making of the 
Constitution and will be treated under a later 
topic heading. 

In emphasizing material for the eighth grade, 
the economic and social development should be 
particularly studied. 

The War of 18 12 as a military topic is largely 
a waste of time, but the economic results which 
arose from it demand careful attention. 

No true comprehension of such a man as 
Andrew Jackson, or the meaning of the " Spoils 
System," or the financial difficulties of that day 
can be attained by the children until they realize 
what kind of a person the average American 
citizen was in 1837. 

62 



THE RECITATION 

In teaching the Civil War much care should 
be taken to bring out the economic reasons for 
the war and the true causes of the failure of the 
Southern Confederacy: the lack of railroads, the 
lack of manufactures, the final lack of money are 
of more importance than the minute details of 
Grant's campaigns. 

The quotation, "The cotton gin caused the 
Civil War, and the McCormick reaper won it," 
would be a good review topic in a class discussion 
lesson. 

The period of American history which follows 
the Civil War, the last fifty years, should be de- 
veloped much more fully than is usually done in 
elementary schools. The teacher should resist 
the temptation to dwell upon the earlier and more 
familiar periods and arrange her work upon a 
schedule which will allow a proper study of the 
great modern problems that have arisen since 
1877. The skillful teacher can add much to the 
textbook and the work may be correlated with 
present-day problems. The Spanish War natu- 
rally brings the future status of the Philippines 
before a class. The passage of the Interstate 
Commerce Acts, modern questions about rail- 
roads, labor problems and the power of capital — 
such thought connections make the history lesson 

63 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

alive to a child and they prepare him for citizen- 
ship. 

Another important element which should be 
emphasized is the necessary European background 
during certain periods of American history. 

For example, no satisfactory explanation of the 
events that crowd the period from Washington to 
Monroe can be made without some understand- 
ing of the French Revolution and the life of 
Napoleon. 

Here is the opportunity for outside readings 
and special reports which will deeply interest the 
children. The troubles in France, the conquests 
of Napoleon, the victories of Nelson, will make 
clear to them the meaning of Genet and the 
X. Y. Z. affair. They will see how we obtained 
Louisiana and why we laid the embargo and the 
reason Great Britain impressed our sailors. Many 
modern problems are solved by such a study. 
Words and phrases in the newspapers to-day, 
" blockade, " " contraband of war," " rights of 
neutrals," etc., are explained as part of the 
history lesson about conditions existing a hun- 
dred years ago. 

An interesting way of teaching history ma- 
terial in the higher grades is the "problem" 
method of arranging the work to be studied. 

6 4 



THE RECITATION 

The subject-matter of the lesson is considered 
under the form of some question whose answer is 
to be found in the textbook. For example, in- 
stead of treating the topics which include the 
French and Indian War as mere facts, the general 
problem stated for the class to solve is, "Why 
did France lose her possessions in America? " 
or, "Why did England win the struggle for the 
American continent? " All events that follow one 
another in this connection are related to the ques- 
tion and are part of the solution. If the lesson be 
on the Revolutionary period, such a problem may 
be stated as, "The Burgoyne compaign is con- 
sidered the most decisive in the war. Is this 
true?" The recitation must answer this question 
and the interest of the class is aroused in discuss- 
ing the various phases of the story. 

Much American history material may be 
taught in problem form, and the children grow 
keen in challenging general statements and trac- 
ing out the connection of events that relate to the 
question. The mere statement of a fact in ques- 
tion form is not necessarily a problem. The real 
problem must involve an opportunity for doubt 
and discussion and should include several minor 
topics. To ask a class, "What are the beliefs of 
the Republican Party about the tariff?" is not a 

65 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

problem. It is an ordinary class question; but to 
put such a query to a class as, "Why have the 
two great political parties in the United States 
always differed about the tariff? " is a topic which 
would result in an interesting lesson on that 
rather difficult subject for children to grasp, the 
tariff question, and the class-work could involve 
both past and present history in its treatment. 
The use of the problem topic is merely another 
form of the topical recitation and makes for 
variety and mental development. 

After reading the textbook in a study recitation, 
the children themselves are often able to state 
the problem to be solved for the next day's lesson. 

Another novel, modern method of arranging 
history material may be considered under the so- 
called "motivating lesson" form. This means 
teaching a history lesson from some everyday 
subject in which the child's interest is aroused. 
The idea here is to explain the past through the 
medium of some present condition or event which 
has excited the curiosity of a class and about 
which they themselves desire information. 

On their way to school, the children see a group 
of foreigners working on the street. They won- 
der about them. Who are they? Why are they 
there? Through this mental doorway they enter 

66 



THE RECITATION 

in and explore the vast subject of immigration 
to America. They discuss the reasons for emi- 
gration, the various nationalities which have 
settled here, the services they have rendered, the 
problems they have created. 

Perhaps one of the class is of foreign parentage 
and he hears at home a discussion on " naturali- 
zation" and the attitude of the family toward 
the new land. He asks in class, "What is it to be 
an American?" This is the motive for a vigorous 
lesson on American citizenship. He is shown that 
America gives him freedom, education, protec- 
tion, opportunity, and happiness, and that to be 
an American means to serve and love the great 
Republic whose rich gifts he enjoys. 

The newspapers and magazines are filled with 
an infinite variety of motivating material. An 
account of a railway dispute will lead to the 
Interstate Commerce Act and the growth of 
transportation; a race riot in some part of the 
South means a lesson on the results of the Re- 
construction Period; the visit to the United 
States of some famous personage gives a lesson 
on the government of his country and its rela- 
tion to America; the study of their own soil con- 
ditions and industries will teach a rural school 
the past history of their State. 

6 7 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

Teaching history by means of the present is a 
most valuable exercise and is well worth using 
in our elementary schools; but to use this method 
alone and discard the textbook and the chrono- 
logical treatment of past events would end in 
mental confusion and a superficial, unbalanced, 
educational system. Constant, daily exercises 
whose aim is the explanation of the past by con- 
necting it with the modern incident should be, 
however, introduced into all our history recita- 
tions. 

The relationship between history and litera- 
ture should never be forgotten in higher grade 
teaching. 

Famous poems, as Old Ironsides, The Building 
of the Ship, The Blue and the Gray, interesting 
books, as The Crossing or The Crisis, great ora- 
tions, as Webster 1 s Reply to Hayne or the Gettys- 
burg Address, should be used as often as time will 
allow in the classroom. 

A few verses from the Biglow Papers give color 
to the story of the struggle over Texas, and a 
short reading from Uncle Tom's Cabin will show 
a class why it was so tremendous an influence 
during the period before the Civil War. The 
children should associate the names of American 
poets and writers, as Cooper, Lowell, Whittier, 

68 



THE RECITATION 

Longfellow, and Emerson, with the historical 
events of their time. They should not dwell in a 
separate world labeled "literature." 

This discussion of the conduct of the recitation 
may be summarized by stating that the teacher 
may make the ordinary textbook the basis of 
many interesting and vitalizing lessons. She 
must seek to present a true concepytion of the 
dramatic and wonderful story which we call 
history. She must see and apply the connection 
between the past cause and its present-day result. 
She must use this story as a powerful instrument 
in the mental development of her pupils. She 
must above all train them to think intelligently 
and independently, and to express their thoughts 
in lucid and definite language. 



IX 

THE USE OF THE OUTLINE 

Modern educational methods have laid consid- 
erable emphasis upon the use of the outline 
or topical list of events as an aid in the study 
of history. It is considered an assistant in oral 
expression and an incentive in the development 
of historical reasoning. 

The outline is fundamentally a condensed 
synopsis of the most important facts or most 
essential points in a certain amount of subject 
material. Its very nature implies a study of 
cause and effect. It is a brief memorandum of 
our thoughts upon a certain subject. The aim of 
the outline is to teach unity, coherence, and the 
proper emphasis, and its practical use develops a 
sense of organization and systematic reasoning. 
Unity must be secured by placing only suitable 
topics under the proper headings and by exclud- 
ing all irrelevant and trivial details, yet every 
idea essential to the general development of the 
thought should be carefully stated in the outline. 

Coherence must be obtained by proper form 

70 



THE OUTLINE 

arrangement, each topic being stated in the same 
general manner, while emphasis is gained by the 
constant exercise of the reasoning powers. 

Since the outline treats of events, movements, 
or personalities in a definite fashion, it pronounces 
judgment on the relative value of these events 
or personalities historically as it is created; there- 
fore, to make a good outline the mind must con- 
tinually compare and weigh evidence as to the 
value of the event selected as a topical heading. 
The outline thus becomes an important exercise 
in judgment, and its creation by an individual or 
by a class is a useful and worth-while achievement. 

Merely learning an outline made by the teacher 
or suggested in a textbook, while it may clarify 
the child's view of the material, is largely an act 
of the memory, and possesses little educational 
usefulness. 

If a teacher uses the outline a textbook offers, 
it would be well to have the children discuss the 
topic headings and prove to their own satisfac- 
tion the importance of the selected titles in the 
author's arrangement. 

Some textbooks used in the elementary grades 
present excellent outlines for class use, and 
teachers feel they cannot improve upon the book; 
these topics, therefore, are studied, the class 

7i 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

merely discussing their meaning or the questions 
that may arise in connection with them. 

Such a method is much better than the old 
paragraph system because it has the virtue of 
definite and logical thinking, yet it does not 
develop directly the pupiPs powers of reasoning 
or teach him to weigh events and judge historical 
values. 

The best method, then, is the use of the outline 
created by the pupil, the result of his own mental 
initiative and judgment. 

Outlines may be made in class during a study 
recitation from the open book, or they may be 
developed during a class recitation. 

Pupils may be required to prepare an outline 
at home and present it as their point of view on 
the subject-matter. 

After the children have made a series of out- 
lines, they learn the aim and method of organi- 
zation desired and frequently become very skill- 
ful in handling topics and suggesting forms of 
arrangement. 

The proper English form should be taught and 
followed, and the pupils should not be allowed 
to make outlines in which sentences and phrases 
are jumbled together in a careless and disorderly 
fashion. 

72 



THE OUTLINE 

Making a good outline is a difficult task. It 
requires concentration, judgment, and a sense 
of form as well as a knowledge of the English 
language. 

When the outline is being developed in the 
classroom, the topics should be suggested by the 
various members of the class. Each topic head- 
ing or sub-title should be carefully considered 
before it is accepted as the proper title for the 
event or idea under discussion. The words used, 
the notation and logical order of the thoughts 
expressed in the outline, should be criticized by 
the class, and the final statement in its perfected 
form shown clearly on the blackboard. 

The children should understand that a sum- 
mary or a synopsis in narrative style is not a 
class outline, and they should be trained to dis- 
tinguish between them. 

The following outline is an illustration of an 
outline developed in a study recitation on the 
textbook material that preceded a lesson on the 
Mexican War. The teacher had stated that the 
outline must show the causes of the war with 
Mexico. The children arranged the topics in the 
order they considered the most historical, one 
member of the class writing the topics on the 
board as they were formulated. 

73 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

The story of Texas 

A. Why the South needed more land. 

i. What the cotton gin had done. 

2. Westward expansion. 

3. The Missouri Compromise line and the 
slave-owners. 

B. How the people felt about slavery. 

1. The feeling in the South. 

a. Reasons for slavery. 

2. The feeling in the North. 

a. Some opposition to slavery. 
(1) The Abolitionists. 

C. How Texas became independent. 

1. Texas a State of Mexico. 

a. The Americans in Texas. 

b. The discontent of the Americans. 

2. Texas declares her independence (1836). 

a. Her struggle with Mexico. 

(1) What General Sam Houston did. 

3. Texas becomes an independent State. 

a. "The Lone Star State." 

D. How Texas entered the Union. 

1. Texas applies for admission. 

2. The struggle between the parties. 

a. Causes of the dispute. 

(1) Slavery and the boundary 
claims of Texas. 

3. How Texas was admitted (1845). 

a. What Tyler did. 
, b. What Polk did. 

74 



THE OUTLINE 

E. Why Texas caused the war with Mexico, 
i. What Texas claimed. 

2. What Mexico claimed. 

3. How the war came about. 

4. Was the war just ? 

The material for the outline was all in the text- 
book, but scattered through various chapters, 
and some of the topics were even taken from 
footnotes. 

In reciting from this outline, each topic was 
discussed orally. Map work showing the Mis- 
souri Compromise line and the disputed bound- 
aries was used. 

The teacher read several extracts from the 
Biglow Papers to illustrate the spirit of the 
times. A special topic on Sam Houston was 
given by a member of the class, and there was 
a lively exchange of views on the interesting 
moral question which was suggested by the last 
sub-title. It would be possible to correlate such 
a lesson with class- work in current events if these 
were being studied by the children. 

The chief value of such an exercise is its in- 
fluence in teaching historical continuity and 
clearness of thought in organizing materiaL 

Another outline made by a class when studying 
a later period of history was used as a basis for 

75 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY, 

an oral review conducted by the members of the 
class. 

How the United States controls business 

A. Why it is necessary. 

i. The growth of the railroads. 

2. The growth of great business. 

3. The growth of labor unions. 

B. How the Government gets its power. 

1. The Constitution. 

2. Laws made by Congress. 

C. How "big business" helps America. 

D. How "big business" may hurt America. 

E. The Acts passed by Congress. 

1. To control the railroads. 

a. Interstate Commerce Law (1887). 

b. Railroad Rate Act (1906). 

2. To control "big business." 

a. Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890). 

b. Some recent Acts. 

In the review lesson on the outline the chil- 
dren discussed the words "trusts," "monopoly," 
"strikes," "capitalists," "corporations." They 
had to give illustrations of the valuable work done 
by railroads and large organizations of capital as 
well as their abuses. The clause in the Constitu- 
tion giving Congress power over commerce was 
recited or read. Some of the aims of the labor 

76 



THE OUTLINE 

unions were mentioned. While the children of 
an elementary grade are necessarily limited in 
their ability to deal very profoundly with such 
material, they are usually deeply interested in 
it, as it touches on everyday life, whose problems 
are their own. 

In thus using an outline as a basis for recita- 
tion or review work, the child is obeying his 
natural instinct for orderly reasoning about 
events that have impressed or interested him. 
He sees the deeper meanings of the facts pre- 
sented by the textbook and he enjoys searching 
for the strong but often hidden cords that bind 
the past cause to the later result. 

Therefore, in creating an outline he has erected 
a thought skeleton which the recitation clothes 
with flesh and endows with life. 



X 

THE USE OF ILLUSTRATIVE MATERIAL 

Some one has said that we remember one tenth 
of what we hear, five tenths of what we see, and 
nine tenths of what we do. The power and value 
of the visual and manual appeal is becoming 
rapidly one of the commonplaces of education. 
The message which the eye and hand carry to 
the brain, the deep, mysterious influence of the 
physical upon the mental, are all part to-day of 
our new educational creed. 

We know that we cannot teach chemistry 
without a laboratory and the proper scientific 
apparatus; neither can we teach history with- 
out using some illustrative material to give the 
proper sense reaction to our mental stimulus. 

Our problem, then, is to teach the child to see 
and to do as well as to think and to feel; for 
history, instead of being a book subject alone, is 
peculiarly a hand subject and an eye subject. 
Under the magic of this modern method the child 
not only thinks about the Indian or the Missis- 

7 8 



ILLUSTRATIVE MATERIAL 

sippi River, but he sees them and he even creates 
his own conception of them. 

Maps, charts, pictures, sand houses, etc., give 
color and meaning to the words in the textbook 
or in the story reader, and the learning by doing 
is a potent factor in the child's development. 

Among the many varieties of illustrative ma- 
terial which are helpful in elementary-grade work 
are maps and charts. 

Maps and charts 

It would scarcely seem necessary to dwell upon 
the value and necessity of these most essential 
instruments in all good history teaching. To talk 
about Washington's campaigns without a map 
accompaniment, or to dilate on the advantages of 
the Louisiana Purchase without knowing where 
it was, or to discuss the future of the Philippine 
Islands without locating them, would be as 
foolish as to describe the way to make bread in 
a domestic-science lesson without demonstrating 
the operation. 

The map, the chart, the globe are all necessary 
adjuncts to every history recitation. How to use 
them most effectively is the teacher's problem. 

In some schools the teacher may possess few 
good wall maps, no history charts or globes; she 

79 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

must therefore depend upon the map in the text- 
book for the class use. The more maps in a text- 
book the better. The children should be taught 
an intensive study of these maps. They should 
feel that the map is part of the daily lesson, and 
it should be examined and consulted when the 
lesson is prepared. All geographical allusions 
should be noted and the pupils should be held 
responsible for their accurate location. 

Children will not do this unless they are trained 
by the class-work to understand and appreciate 
the value of the maps. Indifference to the map 
is a common weakness in history teaching. High- 
school graduates as well as elementary-school 
pupils are frequently unable to locate important 
cities, rivers, and even countries. The relation- 
ship that exists between the history lesson and 
the atlas or map should be constantly empha- 
sized as an essential element in every day's work. 
That the geography of a place frequently explains 
its history is a truth that a class will in time grasp 
and enjoy. 

Wall maps are useful, as they give the setting 
on a large scale, and the place under discussion 
may be clearly seen and its geography thoroughly 
impressed. Besides wall maps, there are several 
excellent sets of history charts which are ex- 

80 



ILLUSTRATIVE MATERIAL 

tremely helpful in history teaching. These show 
the progressive stages of national development. 
They represent various periods or special histori- 
cal events and give meaning and definiteness to 
the narrative. The use of a good history chart 
in a seventh or eighth grade will well repay its 
initial cost to the school. 

Besides the ordinary wall maps and history 
charts, outline maps may be obtained. These are 
peculiarly valuable for review work and can be 
made excellent exercises in accuracy of location 
and topical descriptions. They are usually made 
of blackboard material and can be erased and 
cleaned after the lesson. 

A child sent to an outline map of this character 
to locate or draw in some important city, river, 
campaign, mountain chain, etc., must actually 
possess very definite knowledge of the geography 
asked for, or his mistakes will be so palpable that 
he will receive the sharp criticism of his class- 
mates. If the teacher is unable to procure a wall 
outline map, she herself can easily place one on 
the blackboard and use it in the same fashion. 

Outline maps may be made by the children 
themselves on the blackboard and important 
history and geography connections made on them. 
Children studying New Jersey or Massachusetts 

81 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

or any home state history can easily put in early 
settlements, Indian trails, famous historical cen- 
ters, if there are any, battlefields, railroads, or 
stage-coach routes. 

The small individual outline maps which may 
be used for special historical illustrations are well 
worth using. Such topics as medieval trade 
routes, voyages, territorial expansion, etc., may 
be placed on these by the pupil either at home or 
during the class lesson. Such map work not only 
imparts a knowledge of geography, but the 
manual dexterity necessary to produce a neat, 
well-drawn, or nicely colored map is a profitable 
exercise in handwork. 

Sand-table maps may be used in the primary 
grades to illustrate community history stories as 
well as community geography. If the children 
make a map that shows the location of their own 
town or village and its river and hill environ- 
ment, they can also develop from it its past 
history. As the history of a community is usually 
the result of its natural and physical surround- 
ings, the sand table will show this well. 

On the sand-table map the children can make 
the first road, the tavern where the stage-coach 
used to stop. They can indicate the site of the 
first house and the first church, perhaps some 

82 



ILLUSTRATIVE MATERIAL 

Revolutionary landmark, or some interesting 
local monument. Emphasis on local history is 
exceedingly worth while. One of the class may 
live in a famous old house; another may be able 
to tell some legend or family tradition about his 
home. Perhaps a soldier was hidden in his cel- 
lar, or Indians lived in the woods where to-day 
the children have picnic suppers. The sand map 
may indicate the site of the first schoolhouse and 
show the gradual growth of the community. Lo- 
cal history, because it emphasizes the everyday 
familiar world around them, is peculiarly fas- 
cinating to young children. All such material is 
easily correlated with geography and may be 
illustrated by constructive work in clay, paper, 
cardboard, or plasticine. 

In primary work, often the best map is the 
blackboard map made by the teacher herself. 
She can omit useless details and place upon it 
the actual essentials adapting it to the story in 
the book or the story she has told the class. The 
ability to do this successfully is well worth cul- 
tivating by teachers of elementary grades. As 
the map is one form by which the process of ma- 
terializing the history lesson is developed, the use 
of manual illustrative work is another method of 
visualization. 

83 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

The use of constructive hand work 
It has been asserted that nearly every incident 
in history can be visualized and reproduced in 
concrete form. From the Indian camp-fire to the 
signing of the Emancipation Proclamation it is 
possible to protray in visible form the event 
whose story the child meets in his history study. 
This constructive work may be of many various 
kinds, such as: — 

i. Blackboard illustration by the teacher and the 
children. 

2. Paper-folding for caps, boats, furniture, etc. 

3. Paper-cutting. 

4. Color work, water-color pictures, crayons, etc. 

5. The use of cardboard and corrugated paper for 

houses, cabins, wagons, etc. 

6. The use of clay or plasticine; everything im- 

aginable can be made from clay. 

7. The use of the sand table on which the scene 

may be portrayed. 

These materials are the means by which the 
history story becomes to the child a living reality. 
When he makes the cabins and stockaded houses 
of the early pioneers, he creates for himself the 
primitive atmosphere wherein Boone and Clark 
played their heroic parts. 

84 



ILLUSTRATIVE MATERIAL 

Constructive work is valuable in every grade, 
but its practice in the primary classes is a funda- 
mental element in all successful teaching. Here 
the sand table should be the center of the history 
work. On it may be shown all forms of primitive 
life from the " tree-dwellers" to the homes of the 
Pilgrims. The Thanksgiving story may be de- 
lightfully portrayed, the Indian guests and their 
Pilgrim hosts may be made of clay or paper and 
the feast spread out-of-doors on wooden tables as 
the ancient record tells us. The Southern planta- 
tion, with its stately manor house, its tobacco 
fields, and its negro cabins, is another interesting 
sand-table problem. The children delight in this 
form of manual work. They enjoy dressing dolls 
or painting paper dolls to represent Quaker and 
Puritan maidens, French missionaries or Dutch 
matrons. They will reproduce, often with extra- 
ordinary accuracy, Spanish ships and colonial 
gentlemen, New England schoolboys, and British 
redcoats. They develop accuracy and observa- 
tion and sometimes much delicacy of touch and 
remarkable ingenuity and manual skill. 

Thus, through the art of creation, the historic 
past is re-lived by the child, and its scenes and 
personages become part of his history inheri- 
tance. 

85 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

The use of pictures 
All children enjoy pictures and they are helpful 
in all grades of history teaching. Picture impres- 
sions are very powerful, and many a lif elong idea 
has resulted from a child's interpretation of a pic- 
ture. Therefore inartistic and poor pictures are 
really hindrances to proper educational develop- 
ment because they give a false and inaccurate 
account of a historic event. The well-known 
picture, "Washington Crossing the Delaware/' 
is really historically ridiculous. The comment 
of a sailor's son in a Barnegat school who, af- 
ter gazing at the picture, remarked, " Washing- 
ton was n't much of a seaman, standing up in a 
boat rocking that way among the icebergs," is 
an excellent criticism. The picture merely records 
the fancies of the artist who originally painted it, 
yet thousands of persons have had this scene 
indelibly impressed upon them by the study of 
this picture. 

tf In primary work the picture is much used as a 
basis for story-telling. Good pictures may be 
easily obtained and cheaply mounted. The chil- 
dren can study the picture before or after the 
story is told and the details of the picture may 
help in dramatizing the story or in its English 

86 



ILLUSTRATIVE MATERIAL 

reproduction. Such a picture asMillais's " Boy- 
hood of Sir Walter Raleigh/' showing the eager 
faces of the two boys listening to the tales of 
the old sailor, or the well-known " Lafayette at 
Mount Vernon," with its pretty, old-fashioned 
Virginia setting, are examples of story pictures 
helpful in primary teaching. 

It is probably unnecessary to warn teachers 
against holding up before a class pictures which 
are too small to be seen by all the children or 
against passing a picture around a class while the 
story is being told. The child cannot look at the 
picture and listen to the story at the same time 
unless the group is a very small one and the 
teacher is telling the story from the picture, 
using it as illustrative material. 

Pictures in the textbook are often neglected by 
both teacher and pupils. If the pictures are good, 
they deserve to be definitely studied. Merely 
looking at them is not studying them. The de- 
tails should be examined and the children asked 
to describe the meaning and spirit of the scene 
portrayed and realize how it illustrates the text. 

In the higher grades, the pupils should be en- 
couraged to collect postcards, pictures from mag- 
azines and newspapers, and estimate their artistic 
and literary value. Both civics and history may 

.87 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

be greatly vivified by such pictures, and class 
interest strongly increased. 

A picture of the Supreme Court in session, 
of the President addressing Congress, glimpses of 
scenes at Ellis Island showing the experiences 
of the immigrant, or a picture of a great Western 
wheat-field swept by a McCormick reaper give 
color and life to the text. In collecting out- 
side material of this character, a class should 
be taught discrimination. Many newspaper pic- 
tures are not worth preserving. Gaudy coloring, 
poorly executed prints, sensational subject-mat- 
ter, should be banished by the class itself as un- 
worthy a place in the classroom life. 

Good pictures for elementary-grade work may 
be obtained from The Perry Picture Company, 
Maiden, Massachusetts; from the Mentor Pub- 
lishing Company, 222 Fourth Avenue, New York 
City; from the Cosmos Picture Company, New 
York Cit)\ 

Source pictures, as the McKinley Illustrated 
Source Pictures, The McKinley Company, 1619 
Ranstead Street, Philadelphia, are excellent for 
higher-grade work. These pictures show the 
quaint dress, the customs, the buildings, the man- 
ners of a past age. They are genuine reproduc- 
tions of old photographs or drawings or cartoons 

88 



ILLUSTRATIVE MATERIAL 

in old newspapers. A seventh, eighth, or ninth 
grade will appreciate and enjoy them. The jokes 
and fashions of Jackson's day will reveal to them 
the social life of the time more effectively than 
the textbook narrative. No word description of 
an early railroad train will be half as interesting 
or illuminating as the picture of an old-fashioned 
locomotive and its cars. 

Blackboard drawing is another important 
picture method. The teacher who can sketch as 
she talks, no matter how crudely she does it, is 
able to hold the fascinated interest of her class. 
In primary teacmng, the picture on the black- 
board may be used in innumerable ways to illus- 
trate the varied phases of the " storied past." 

The stereoscope is used most successfully in 
many schools and greatly enjoyed by the chil- 
dren. These pictures reproduce wonderfully the 
actual scene and give a realistic vision of the city 
or country they represent in a marvelous fashion. 

Some schools possess a lantern, and the history 
teacher may be fortunate enough to gather a 
small collection of good slides which may be 
used for an occasional talk or lecture. 

No ordinary recitation or book work is able to 
create as lasting an impression as the pictures 
thrown upon the screen. Good slides and a good 

8 9 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

lantern are investments that richly repay the 
school authorities, and no doubt the day will 
come when their use in the classroom will be an 
essential factor in all educational work. 

History has, by the use of manual and visual 
devices, become alive to many thousands of chil- 
dren to whom a book narrative made no definite 
appeal. While the spiritual or ethical significance 
of the history story should never be lost or the 
underlying idea cheapened and distorted in or- 
der to overemphasize some form of illustrative 
work, yet as an aid in elementary teaching its 
tremendous power to awaken the child's interest 
in the past is a most fundamental factor in suc- 
cessful education. 



XI 

DRAMATIZATION 

Coming into her schoolroom one wet morning a 
teacher of a rather dull and unresponsive fourth 
grade was surprised, indeed. In front of the desk 
the children were crowded around a large green 
spot which on closer inspection was seen to be the 
torn lining of the old waste-basket. Standing on 
the green area was a little Irish girl, a band of 
red ribbon tied around her freckled forehead, in 
her hand was the blackboard ruler, and she was 
pointing it toward the kneeling figure of a de- 
cidedly shabby and none too clean little Polish 
Jew whose dark eyes were eagerly fastened upon 
her. " Git up, Sir Walter," she commanded ma- 
jestically; "'your queen is well pleased and you 
shall have a new cloak at once, and because of 
this 'ere brave deed you may come to my castle 
for breakfast." 

"He'd orter kiss your hand now," coached one 
of the crowd, when the teacher was perceived at 
the door. In a moment the scene dissolved. The 

9i 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

children rushed to their seats and only the green 
muslin cloth remained, a mute witness to the 
memory of a famous incident. 

The teacher had been telling history stories 
and the class had been reading them for several 
months, but the results had not been very cheer- 
ing. The English reproductions were dull and 
misspelled, the oral expression halting and in- 
accurate, and the class seemed to lack imagina- 
tion and appreciation. The teacher therefore 
returned the lining to the waste-basket very 
thoughtfully. 

When the history lesson came that afternoon, 
she said suddenly: " Let's play one of the history 
stories we have read to-day as you played Sir 
Walter this morning. Shall we begin with Robin 
Hood and his adventures in the forest? Whom 
shall we have for Robin Hood? " 

A dozen hands waved in the air. She gazed 
into eager, transformed little faces. "I want to 
be King Richard!" " Please let me be Prince 
John! I know just how to play him!" " Don't 
let the boys be everything! " — were some of the 
entreaties that filled her ears. 

From that hour dramatization entered the 
doors of that fourth grade and dullness and in- 
ertia vanished before its alluring charms. The 

92 



DRAMATIZATION 

play instinct so powerful in the child was aroused 
and the history lesson was eagerly prepared. 
Later, in review, the incidents were frequently 
acted, much to the enjoyment of the class. 

Under the severe criticism showered upon 
actors whose language was considered unworthy 
of their parts, English expression rapidly im- 
proved. "If you don't talk better, you can't 
play being Bishop," was the threat made by va- 
rious members of the class to the young person 
who sought to personate Stephen Langton in the 
signing of the Magna Charta. 

The class at last aspired to give a real play and 
invite the home circles. 

The play was largely written by themselves 
and was a thrilling picture of the varied ad- 
ventures of a certain little Hugh who dwelt in 
a medieval castle. The fathers and mothers all 
came, and despite the vicissitudes of home-made 
scenery and costumes, Hugh was presented in 
most excellent fashion. 

He was a truly noble page, went hunting and 
hawking, visited fairs and monasteries, saved 
ladies from cruel robbers, and was finally knighted 
amid much glory and applause. 

As the teacher watched the delighted faces of 
the admiring audience and listened to the spirited 

93 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

lines of her " fourth-graders/' she decided she 
was glad, indeed, that she had truly interpreted 
the possibilities of the scene around the old green 
lining that morning. 

She had merely allowed the natural instincts of 
the children to express themselves through emo- 
tion and action. The old romantic stories of the 
past were now eternally alive to them, for they 
had lived them over in the doing. 

Dramatization is to-day universally recog- 
nized as one of the most valuable forms of hu- 
man expression, and its use in education is en- 
thusiastically advocated. \ 

No subject offers so rich a field for dramatic 
representation as history. Literature itself can- 
not invent more emotional or imaginative situ- 
ations than can be found in the great drama of 
human progress and struggle. No tragedies are 
darker than those that have really happened, no 
comedies more joyful than those men themselves 
have played. 

Children delight in the heroic and the unusual. 
Many are natural actors and will without the 
slightest self-consciousness personate any char- 
acter that appeals to their interest. 

Kindergarten children enjoy "pretending" in 
their games and boys will play Indians for hours 

94 



DRAMATIZATION 

at a time and are passionately absorbed in the 
scenes they invent. 

Self-consciousness, which begins to develop dur- 
ing adolescence, and which gives awkwardness 
and diffidence to the high-school boy or girl, does 
not often interfere with the dramatic instinct in 
children in the elementary schools. In the lower 
grades the acting is better than in the eighth, it 
is more spontaneous and less fearful of ridicule, 
more original and naturally vigorous. 

History dramatizations in school naturally fall 
into two classes: the formal or semi-formal pre- 
pared play, pageant, tableau, etc., and the in- 
formal or spontaneous presentation of some his- 
torical event in dramatic form. This latter form 
is naturally a review method in character. 

The formal play may be given in different 
ways and has varied possibilities. The play may 
be taken from a book or magazine. It may be 
written by the children themselves. It may be 
purely historical or it may be an imaginary 
drama placed in historical setting. The children 
learn the parts and present the scenes to an out- 
side audience. Plays founded on the lives of 
famous men, as Nathan Hale or Daniel Boone, 
or on the well-known Sherwood Forest Tales, are 
examples of this kind of play ? 

95 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

The pageant with its varied activities is a de- 
lightful form of the prepared play. Scenes from 
community history may be enacted. Dancing, 
music, and symbolic tableaux may be intro- 
duced. 

Not long ago a country school in New England 
had a little pageant under the trees in the yard 
and invited the parents. They gave some scenes 
from the history of the State and one or two little 
incidents in the past history of that school dis- 
trict. They closed with a pretty tableau com- 
memorating the beauty of education and patriot- 
ism. The people had come for miles to see the 
" school show" and the interest aroused was re- 
markable. The next town meeting appropriated 
more money for that district than it had ever 
received and it now boasts a small school library 
as a result of the little play. 

In the lower grades, dramatic opportunities 
are innumerable. The life of Columbus, William 
Penn and the Indians, Marion and the British 
officer are illustrations of good primary play ma- 
terial. Scenes from Indian story work or sim- 
ple little legends showing primitive life may be 
used in the first or second grade with excel- 
lent results. Such a book as Bird and Starling's 
Historical Plays for Children contains suggestive 

9 6 



DRAMATIZATION 

dialogues which may be adapted for fifth- and 
sixth-grade use. 

The reproduction in dramatic form of the mak- 
ing of the Constitution has become an admirable 
and useful exercise in many eighth-grade classes. 
The class carefully read the sources, as Madison's 
diary and the various speeches of the members of 
the convention. They become saturated with the 
ideas of the speakers and acquainted with their 
personalities. The scenes may be presented in 
different ways. Washington is chosen president 
of the convention; the compromises are fought 
over and debated; the dissenting members with- 
draw; Franklin and Hamilton make their famous 
appeals; and finally, amid the solemn congratula- 
tions of the assembled delegates, the great docu- 
ment is formally signed. The children in present- 
ing such a historic scene usually catch the spirit 
and ideals and even the language of the men they 
personate. 

Some schools have followed the making of the 
Constitution with a symbolic series of tableaux 
representing the ratification by the various 
States. The signing of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence may also be portrayed in similar 
fashion. 

Biography is naturally a fertile field for the 

97 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

display of the dramatic instinct. Scenes from the 
life of such a man as Benjamin Franklin may be 
so skillfully arranged that they present a picture 
of colonial and national history: — 

i. Franklin, the poor boy, eating the loaf of bread 
on Philadelphia streets. 

2. Franklin, the scientific student, in the episode 

with the lightning rod. 

3. Franklin trying to raise the money to equip 

Braddock's little army for the field. 

4. Franklin standing at the bar of the House of 

Commons during his famous examination on 
the state of the colonies. 

5. Franklin urging the signing of the Declaration 

of Independence, "lest we all hang sepa- 
rately." 

6. Franklin, the fSted hero of the French Court, 

surrounded by the admiring ladies. 

7. Franklin, an old man of eighty, making the final 

speech in the Constitutional Convention. 

In these scenes the life of one man is really 
the history of a people, and much may be done 
in presenting them that will teach the dress, 
the customs, and the language of the special 
epoch. 

As part of the English work, the class may 
write the dialogue and speeches, while the slight 
costuming required might be prepared in the 

9 S 



DRAMATIZATION 

manual-training period with some assistance or 
contributions from home. 

Too ornate and elaborate dramatizations spoil 
the simplicity and value of school exercises of 
this character, or make the preparation a burden 
rather than a pleasure, and destroy the natural- 
ness of the attempt. Very little stage scenery is 
necessary if the young actors are filled with the 
spirit of the play. Children love to " dress up," 
but so vivid are their imaginations that a band 
around the brow will create a knightly costume 
or a feather in the hair an Indian's war panoply. 
Like the Elizabethan stage, which used signs to 
represent scenery, they do not require a Belasco 
setting for their little dramas. 

Teachers are sometimes so troubled over these 
details that they are afraid to introduce much 
dramatization in their work. If they would real- 
ize that elaborate staging is not in harmony with 
the simple ideas that the child's play presents, 
they would enjoy this form of teaching and usejt 
more frequently. 

Besides the formal or prepared play, the 
spontaneous or informal dramatization may be 
used. This is merely the class review presented 
in a dramatic form and is especially valuable 
with children below the sixth grade. The story 

99 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

the children read or the teacher tells is acted 
spontaneously and without preparation by the 
class, as in the knighting of Sir Walter Raleigh 
on the waste-basket lining. The parts are chosen 
rapidly and the children use the words that come 
naturally to them to express their conception of 
the characters they desire to represent. 

Much primary history lends itself readily to 
this form of dramatic inspiration. 

The story of Joseph and the story of Co- 
lumbus are series of dramatic episodes. Scenes 
from English history — as King Alfred burning 
the cakes, or Robert Bruce and the spider — ar.e 
peculiarly easy to act. Early colonial life in 
America from the Pilgrims to Daniel Boone are 
filled with dramatic incidents. No scenery and 
no costuming are necessary for this work; the 
scene is presented merely as part of the lesson. 

Besides the reproduction of actual historical 
events, imaginary scenes in a historical setting 
may be used, as historical poems, extracts from 
historical stories. Little plays where the children 
suggest plot and scenes and help write the lines 
are often useful exercises. Occasionally a com- 
mittee of children may be able to present a 
dramatization to the class without any assistance 
from the teacher. 

ioo 



DRAMATIZATION 

The study of the past is necessary in order to 
portray the language, customs, and appearance 
of the various characters of the play. This is 
good training both in history and in English, and 
the plot development, however elementary it 
may be, requires some reasoning and sense of 
logical order as well as some definite knowledge 
of historical facts. 

The little girl who wrote that Queen Elizabeth 
took the first train to Plymouth to meet Francis 
Drake on his return from America would have dis- 
covered her mistake had she been writing a play 
around the event with the members of her class. 

Dramatization in any form is an interesting 
and effective method of teaching, but like all 
methods should not be tried continually. Its 
over-employment may produce an artificial stim- 
ulation which will in time react unfavorably 
on some children. They will find other forms of 
study dull and stupid and they develop an un- 
healthy mental activity. Nervous and shy chil- 
dren sometimes do not enjoy acting any part 
and dread the publicity and responsibility of the 
play. Therefore the dramatic method, while it 
arouses enthusiasm and is a valuable aid in in- 
spirational teaching, should always be used with 
care and never abused. 

IOI 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

Teachers should also be cautioned on the 
choice of material for dramatization. Some sub- 
jects should never be acted in a schoolroom for 
obvious reasons : battle scenes, deathbed scenes, 
Indian attacks, massacres, executions, and the 
like, or scenes where the physical conditions ren- 
der the attempt to portray them ridiculous, as 
Washington crossing the Delaware, etc. All such 
episodes, however dramatic in one sense, are 
unfit or incapable of proper presentation by chil- 
dren in school. Good taste and common sense 
must govern the teacher's arrangement of mate- 
rial. 

In general, however, it may be said that 
dramatization is a potent and noble educational 
instrument. 

No one who has ever watched a class "play" 
a lesson and has noted the grace, the abandon, 
the lack of self-consciousness, the delight with 
which they re-lived their little drama, their com- 
plete absorption in the characters, can for a mo- 
ment doubt the power of the dramatic instinct 
or question its place in the modern schoolroom. 



XII 

DEBATES 

One of the oldest forms of discussion sacred to 
educational memory from the district school to 
the college is the prepared debate. 

We find accounts of public debating in the me- 
dieval universities and in colonial curriculums. 
"To talk on one's feet" is an art which has been 
practiced wherever men have attempted to per- 
suade or reason with their fellows from Socrates 
to Lincoln. 

The debate is valuable because it teaches first 
the art of fluent English expression. In order to 
debate at all, one must be able to talk; he must 
also talk clearly, accurately, definitely. He must 
clothe his ideas rapidly in language which is con- 
vincing and persuasive. Vague statements, fal- 
tering expressions, incoherent remarks end in 
confusion and disgrace. The power to speak to 
the point is no mean gift. It is hard to cultivate 
and the debate is a powerful factor in its develop- 
ment. 

Secondly, the debate teaches self-confidence. 

103 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

The debater must forget himself in his subject. 
His desire to win his argument will cause him to 
lose the natural diffidence and self-consciousness 
which often overwhelm young speakers before an 
audience. Shy girls who never say much in a 
class recitation become surprisingly fluent when 
they find themselves champions for their side in 
a hot debate. 

A third debate value is the knowledge it neces- 
sarily gives of the rules and limitations of what 
is called parliamentary law. The formality and 
procedure observed in even a simple school de- 
bate impresses the youthful citizen and prepares 
him for the practical later experiences in the 
lodge and political meeting. 

A fourth value is the everyday virtue of learn- 
ing how to control one's temper. The give-and- 
take of the debate, the power to hear a cherished 
argument torn to pieces, ridiculed, and rejected, 
and yet maintain one's poise and answer politely, 
is a social training that is a fine preparation for 
any later business in life. 

To this may be added the keenness of thought, 
the quick wit required to answer an unexpected 
attack, or to meet some new argument with a 
better one. 

Children find this difficult to do. They can 

104 



DEBATES 

summarize or report statements they have 
learned, but find it hard to think of new material 
or make a good rebuttal. 

The encounter sharpens their intelligence, how- 
ever, and the mental energy and activity en- 
gendered is never wasted. A class is usually ex- 
tremely alert during a debate. Even the dullest 
are wide awake and eager to help in the battle 
of wits. 

Last, but not least, the debate is the antidote 
for careless thinking or superficial study. If the 
debaters do not know the subject, they are liter- 
ally lost. Nothing is so fatal as poor preparation 
in a debate. The boy or girl who is the best pre- 
pared is usually the winner, while the ineffective 
speaker is the pupil whose argument will not 
stand attack. 

Children learn this truth quickly, and a whole 
class will study eagerly the details of some sub- 
ject for a class debate when the same ground in 
an ordinary lesson would be explored with small 
enthusiasm. The debate, therefore, has value as 
a method of arousing interest and creating a 
certain mental atmosphere in the classroom. 

In the seventh or eighth grades or in the junior 
high school, the debate would be naturally some- 
what elementary in character. It should be less 

, io 5 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

formally conducted than in high school or col- 
lege. As many as possible should take part in it, 
and the subjects should be interesting and easily 
grasped by the pupils. 

The ordinary procedure of the debate is de- 
scribed in any manual of parliamentary law and 
is also given in many books on English composi- 
tion. The strictest forms are not necessary in a 
simple school debate, although a certain order 
and dignity adds to the interest and power of the 
exercise. Children who do not take definite part 
in actual argument should assist the leaders in 
the preparation of material or contribute some- 
thing in the way of rebuttal. If debates take 
place often, different leaders should always be 
chosen. 

Informal debates between two classes or two 
sections of a class may be used during a recita- 
tion period. Each group should choose its leader 
and arrange the sides. 

History and civics offer many suggestions 
which make enlivening debates. 

The discussion of a dead issue is less valuable 
to a class than some everyday problem whose 
solution has some practical bearing on life. A 
debate on the slave question seems futile to-day, 
but a debate on the future of the Philippines 

106 



DEBATES 

might be worth while. Such subjects as, " Re- 
solved, that the French explorers made a greater 
permanent contribution to American history than 
the Spanish explorers," or, " Resolved, that the 
Stamp Act was a legal tax," or, " Resolved, that 
Alexander Hamilton rendered greater services 
to the nation than Thomas Jefferson," will stir 
a class to interested discussion. Present-day 
subjects, as, " Shall we have military training 
in school?" " Shall our town adopt commission 
government?" "Ought immigration to be re- 
stricted?" "Ought the President to be elected 
by popular vote?" "Has woman suffrage been 
successful in actual practice?" are a few illus- 
trations of modern problems which might be 
handled by a class about to enter the high 
school. The treatment of the topics will be some- 
what crude and superficial, but the material in- 
volved is not above their comprehension, whereas 
such a question as the Government ownership of 
railways or certain economic and political prob- 
lems are utterly unfit for consideration by ele- 
mentary-school children. 

If possible, town or community or school ques- 
tions should be used for debates. These are 
especially interesting and valuable. The necessity 
for new parks, for playgrounds, for some school 

107 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

improvement, or some new school rule are practi- 
cal subjects for debate. 

The chief criticisms of the use of the debate in 
school are, first, the time taken from other school 
work to prepare the subject, and secondly, the 
small percentage of children who take an active 
part in the actual exercise. These difficulties pre- 
vent the debate from becoming a frequently used 
device. 

On the other hand, the debate is an excellent 
stimulus to a class. It arouses class spirit and 
enthusiasm. It presents valuable knowledge in 
a striking and dramatic way. It gives the pupils 
a sense of the power of formal argument and a 
balanced mental poise. It teaches the value of 
facts and the weakness of mere rumor, gossip, 
or even newspaper assertions. 

Therefore, the judicious use of the debate in 
the higher grades of the elementary school is both 
helpful and interesting. 



XIII 

RELATION OF HISTORY TO GEOGRAPHY 

The necessity and value of geography as a funda- 
mental part of all history teaching has been al- 
ready discussed in previous chapters. 

History, however, is so largely conditioned 
upon geographical and economic environment 
that it may be worth while to emphasize again 
this significant relationship. 

Climate, soil, waterways, mountain systems, 
these everyday natural phenomena, are the real 
causes that decide the fate of nations and give 
character to their history. 

Just as daily life makes the man, shapes his 
ideals, and creates his mental atmosphere, so does 
the physical environment create and shape the 
outlook, the ambitions, the very soul of a people. 

Why was ancient Greece so individual in de- 
velopment, so weak politically, yet so brilliant 
and constructive in art and literature? Her 
mountain barriers and her stimulating climate 
answer us. The great history of Great Britain is 
but the history of a group of islands "set in the 

109 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

silver sea." Scotch rigidity of life, the pleasant 
manners of the Italian, the dull phlegm of the 
Esquimaux are but the resultants of the climate 
in which they are bred. 

The world's most stupendous wars have been 
usually fought because of some economic or 
geographic question. Cotton-raising and new 
cotton machinery largely caused the Civil War, 
while the gigantic struggle of the present day is, 
as we know, born of desire for national expansion 
and conflicting attempts to secure greater sea 
power and land dominion. 

America has become the greatest commercial 
and manufacturing nation in the world. Every- 
where her people are carrying her products and 
seeking new avenues for her trade; the inten- 
sive study of geography is therefore more impor- 
tant than ever. The geographical element in his- 
tory has not been sufficiently emphasized in our 
schools. 

The child naturally sees each subject as a 
separate group of facts to be studied by itself. 
He does not mentally relate them. Modern 
methods of education have sought earnestly to 
break down these barriers and present this knowl- 
edge in some unified way. 

The constant use of the map, the chart, the 

no 



HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY 

relief map, the lantern lecture talk, the continual 
reference to the geography element in the lesson 
material are practical ways of enforcing this ideal. 

In primary-history stories geography and his- 
tory are literally one. Primitive life is based on 
the out-of-doors world. The child who hears 
about the cave-dwellers or studies the way the 
Indian made his home, worked, journeyed, or 
played, studies the forest, the river, the uses of 
fire and clay, the trapping of wild animals, the 
raising of corn and tobacco. If he studies the 
desert life, he meets the Arab and the Nile; he 
hears of Joseph and his adventures and of the big 
brothers who went down to Egypt to buy corn. 

The Columbus story is a geography story. 
The peculiar ideas men had about the ocean and 
the big world, the green islands the Spaniards 
found, the Indians who were there — all these 
are as important factors in the story as the tale 
of Isabella and her jewels. 

In teaching colonial life the variety in customs, 
business, amusements, even dress, may be traced 
to soil and climate as well as to religion and 
politics. Why did the New England boy go to a 
town school while his far-away Virginia cousin 
had a tutor in the house? Why were there so 
many villages in New York and Massachusetts 

in 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

and no towns in the Carolinas except along the 
coast? 

As has been suggested, the geographical ele- 
ment is fundamental in treating the colonial 
period. The actual settlements were aided or 
hindered by the soil and mountain systems, the 
river power, the harbors, the climate found by 
the settlers who first attempted to conquer the 
vast American continent. A series of geography 
lessons showing the westward movement from 
1607 to the present day would be a good intro- 
duction to seventh-grade study of settlements. 
Special topics on transportation facilities might 
be used to advantage in studying each period of 
migration. 

The Indian trail, the stage-coach, the flatboat, 
to the modern Union Pacific express train, form 
a series of fascinating studies for this grade. 

Geography illuminates many other history 
problems. Why were the States so jealous of one 
another, so hard to unite in a national union? 
What was the reason the democratic and peace- 
loving Jefferson so eagerly desired to buy New 
Orleans and was willing "to stretch the Constitu- 
tion until it cracked" to obtain Louisiana? 

What caused the War of 181 2? What has been 
the effect of the Erie Canal upon our history? 

112 



HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY 

What led to the desire for Mexican territory and 
finally won the gold-fields of California? 

The fierce struggle over the slave acts was 
really a contest over land possessions. 

The teacher and the class will find innumerable 
opportunities from material in American history 
to prove that geography and economic conditions 
have shaped the destiny of the Nation. 

Such a point of view also clarifies many pres- 
ent-day problems. What do we mean by the 
"New South"? What shall we do about the im- 
migration to our cities? What will become of the 
country districts? What is the value of the great 
conservation movements? What have the rail- 
roads done for us? These questions will enliven 
any history class. 

The geographic and economic answer is, how- 
ever, not the only answer to all problems. 

While this point of view is valuable and ex- 
plains much that we see, it does not explain 
everything. Men have always been moved to 
action by motives other than the " bread-and- 
butter" motive, and they still are. We should 
teach a dangerous and materialistic history if we 
did not show that social, religious, and patriotic 
ideals have always swayed and often ultimately 
decided the judgments of our people. 

"3 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

If cotton and the cotton gin largely produced 
the conditions that caused the Civil War, the 
great moral issue underneath finally forced the 
conflict. 

From the higher elementary grades the ma- 
jority of children pass out into the business of 
life. They accept the ideals they have learned 
in the schoolroom. While the teacher of history 
realizes the enormous significance of this modern 
interpretation of events which stresses so heavily 
the purely material side, she should never forget 
to teach that "man does not live by bread 
alone," and that the history of a nation is as 
much the history of its soul as of its body. 
Washington at Valley Forge and Lincoln at 
Gettysburg, although they had been moulded by 
the environment into which they were born, still 
suffered, endured, and conquered because they 
were swayed by spiritual forces that could never 
be measured or explained by any purely physical 
interpretation. 



XIV 

CONCERNING ENGLISH 

That English expression spoken or written is a 
subject isolated and solitary has long since been 
denied by modern educators. 

Teachers believe to-day that a child should be 
taught to spell names and places in the history 
or geography lesson with as much care as he is 
taught to spell in the so-called English lesson. 
They think that mistakes in grammatical form 
are as important when a pupil is reciting on the 
Civil War as when he is discussing a poem of 
Whittier's. 

The whole school atmosphere should empha- 
size the correct and vigorous use of the noble 
language we call " English." 

No problem is, however, more difficult for the 
ordinary teacher to solve than this one of teach- 
ing children to think, spell, and write "good 
English." 

In our American schools we labor against over- 
whelming obstacles. Many thousands of foreign 

"5 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

children, speaking at home foreign languages, 
bring into our classes a foreign idiom which is 
almost impossible to eradicate. 

Others living in an environment which pro- 
duces a cheap, slangy, incorrect English recite 
and write crudely and inaccurately. Some chil- 
dren lack eye and ear perception and seem in- 
capable of grasping the sound of words or their 
proper written forms. Certain pupils who speak 
a moderately correct English never acquire any 
vocabulary and struggle through their educa- 
tional career with a pitifully meager outfit of 
words. 

These and many other difficulties hundreds of 
hard-working elementary teachers meet daily in 
their work, and they frequently lose heart in the 
conflict. 

This book makes no attempt to offer any com- 
plete solution to this great problem. It can only 
suggest that eternal vigilance is the price of good 
English, even more than it is of liberty. It can 
but urge the constant, everyday emphasis upon 
English at all times and in all lessons. The child 
should be taught that much of his future success 
in business or professional life depends upon his 
use of his own language. Well-paid positions de- 
mand a proper knowledge of the national tongue, 

116 



CONCERNING ENGLISH 

Since the only way to acquire this is to speak and 
write English constantly, the daily history lesson 
is an excellent medium for drill in the subject, as 
it lends itself to oral and written expression in 
many forms. 

The teacher herself should be the exponent of 
this doctrine. Whether it be the telling of a story 
or the explanation of the Interstate Commerce 
Act, she should give it with clearness and sim- 
plicity. Slip-shod pronunciation, common or vul- 
gar phrases, react on the children at once. 

Because a child acquires with extraordinary 
facility new words and new modes of expression, 
we should seek to make each history lesson a 
model in English form. We correct misspelled 
words or flagrant grammatical errors, but allow 
such careless phrases as "The President passed 
the Embargo Act," or, "The Indians went 
against the French," to pass unchallenged. 

Constant nagging and criticism whenever a 
pupil recites is, of course, unwise and dishearten- 
ing and must be avoided. Children, however, like 
good English. They enjoy hearing it and are 
keen critics when they are able to distinguish 
mistakes. Frequent explanations as to the mean- 
ing of words will give them a sense of mastery 
and a pride in their own knowledge which will 

117 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

assist materially in their appreciation of the lan- 
guage and their ability to use it. 

The problem of the child who talks bad English 
fluently is balanced by the pupil who possesses 
a vocabulary of six adjectives, "grand," "good," 
"brave," "kind," "bad," "awful," which she 
applies to all events and all men. The girl who 
said, "Alexander the Great was a nice young 
man," represents this type of inarticulate youth. 

To remedy this weakness, descriptions and 
characterizations should be constantly employed. 
Such children should be personally introduced to 
new words and encouraged to use them. Oral and 
written exercises which require some imagina- 
tion should be required of them. Such subjects 
as a visit to an Indian camp, a scene at a tour- 
nament, a Maypole dance in old Virginia, a mod- 
ern suffrage parade, or character sketches which 
need vivid word painting of personages like 
Daniel Boone or Benjamin Franklin or Theodore 
Roosevelt, present material which may create a 
wider vocabulary. 

The special topic, the class play, the drama- 
tized story, and the class debate are opportuni- 
ties that may be turned to golden account in 
emphasizing the use of good English. 

In a debate in an eighth grade, one of the 

118 



CONCERNING ENGLISH 

leaders was sharply criticized by the judges, his 
classmates, for his slangy and crude language in 
the rebuttal. "We do not think he treated the 
class or the subject with proper respect," was 
their verdict. A dozen lessons in English expres- 
sion were less effective than this outburst of 
public opinion. The boy sought eagerly to win 
back his past prestige, and on his next appear- 
ance before the class a dignified special topic, on 
"What Pan- Americanism Means," was solemnly 
presented in an English style that greatly im- 
pressed his former critics. 

Written English requires the same vigilance. 
The test or written exercise in history should be 
marked for spelling and English construction as 
well as for facts. 

Why should an account of the Louisiana Pur- 
chase be considered perfect when the writer has 
misspelled Napoleon or Louisiana? Blackboard 
exercises are excellent opportunities for writing 
correctly the English language. 

Notebooks if used by the class should be cor- 
rected and returned by the teacher. 

If the pupils realize that a paper handed to the 
teacher must be neatly written, correctly spelled, 
and clearly expressed, they are careful in its prep- 
aration. On the other hand, the teacher should 

119 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

give a sufficient amount of time to a class when 
they are writing an exercise to enable them to do 
the work properly and without nervous strain 
and hurry. A list of questions that cannot pos- 
sibly be answered during the period assigned 
causes mental confusion and creates inaccuracy. 

Besides the emphasis on spoken and written 
English in history teaching, the rich treasure 
house of literature is always open to the history 
student. Modern textbooks suggest prose and 
poetry whose use gives color and beauty to the 
daily lesson. 

Material of this kind has been referred to in 
the chapter on " Outside Readings.'' Poetry from 
Hiawatha and The Song of Marion's Men to 
Whitman's My Captain are the common heritage 
of every American child. Such a poem as Low- 
ell's The Crisis will thrill a class to-day as truly 
as it did their grandfathers in i860. 

Such stories as The Man Without a Country, 
The Perfect Tribute, and The Crisis are too well 
known to need any special mention, yet many 
children have never read them. The old custom 
of reading aloud a good story on Friday after- 
noons is still well worthy of practice, especially 
if the reading be done by various members of 
the class. 

120 



CONCERNING ENGLISH 

Excellent illustrations in the use of good Eng- 
lish may be drawn from present-day sources. 
President Wilson's famous and stirring messages 
to Congress, Secretary Lane's " The Makers of 
the Flag/' current magazine poetry, and descrip- 
tive articles which deal with present-day prob- 
lems offer material which should be used in every 
classroom. These not only express ideals of pa- 
triotism, they clothe the thought in a noble and 
stimulating style. 

The teaching of good English is largely the 
teaching of certain habits of thought and expres- 
sion. No book can teach this entirely. It de- 
pends upon the teacher's personality more than 
any other subject taught in our schools. 



XV 

CONCERNING HOLIDAYS 

The days we keep with honor in our American 
schools are wonderful days. Christmas Day, 
which celebrates the most important event in 
human history; Thanksgiving Day, which gives 
us a perfect story of courage and pathos, humor 
and religion; Columbus Day, a memory of the 
world's most daring adventure; Washington's 
and Lincoln's birthdays, the story of two lives, 
crowded with dramatic action, full of passionate 
excitements, and tragic and triumphant hours; 
Memorial Day — no other country keeps so 
tender and beautiful a festival, although in the 
future all Europe will celebrate many such days; 
Flag Day, with its color and stirring memories; 
Fourth of July, — the nation's birthday, — a 
day sacred to every American, rich with noble 
pictures of the past and solemn hopes for the 
greater years to come. These are the chief of our 
festivals; how shall we celebrate them? Perhaps 
the first suggestion should be a plea for origi- 
nality and variety. 

122 



CONCERNING HOLIDAYS 

Take for illustration the programs for use on 
Lincoln's or Washington's birthday. 

The child who passes from grade to grade and 
annually recites the Getty slur g Address, and hears 
about the log cabin and Lincoln's early hardships, 
will in time weary of these themes and cease to 
feel any special thrill when the 12th of February 
arrives. Every teacher should realize that the 
life of Lincoln is full of extraordinary material. 
It is possible to present him under many aspects, 
as pioneer, lawyer, orator, writer, politician, 
ruler, emancipator, a commander of armies, a 
master of men. Scenes from this varied career 
may be used in different classes so that a progres- 
sive picture may be created for the child, a pic- 
ture which portrays the historic Lincoln. 

The first three grades might present in dif- 
ferent ways the early life of Lincoln: the pio- 
neer existence in Kentucky; the hardships, the 
struggle for knowledge; Lincoln's love of animals 
and children; his industry and honesty and thrift 
could be emphasized. 

The fourth and fifth grades, where biography 
is usually studied, should give the story of his 
life in simple but dramatic form. 

In the sixth, seventh, and eighth years, a more 
detailed account of the various phases of the 

123 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

famous narrative could be considered: the slav- 
ery question, the debates with Douglas, Lincoln 
as a lawyer, Lincoln in the war. Scenes could 
be given to illustrate the problems which he had 
to solve; difficulties with generals, the making 
of the Emancipation Proclamation, the visit to 
Richmond, and the call on General Pickett's 
family might be used. 

Such books as The Crisis, The Perfect Tribute, 
The Toy Shop, although fiction, are full of charm- 
ing bits of description and dramatic scenes that 
may be easily arranged for the higher elementary 
grades. 

Poems, as Punch's Apology to Lincoln, printed 
a month after his death, is an excellent recitation 
for an upper grade. A recent poem by Vachel 
Lindsey, Lincoln Walks at Midnight, is very suit- 
able for a present-day celebration. 

In an eighth grade or the junior high school a 
class might use as a new motive the modern con- 
ception of Lincoln from the standpoint of the 
artist. Famous statues might be discussed, as 
that by Saint-Gaudens in Chicago; the Borghlum 
statue in Newark, one of the noblest pieces of 
bronze in the world; and the very recent statue 
made by George Gray Barnard for the Union The- 
ological Seminary in New York City. The sugges- 

124 



CONCERNING HOLIDAYS 

tion that a replica of this statue be erected in 
London has caused much criticism and discussion. 
Why is the statue criticized ? Does it give us a 
true conception of Lincoln ? Children will enjoy 
such a discussion, and the various artistic ideals 
presented by such an exercise are especially help- 
ful to our American school communities. Post- 
cards and magazine pictures can be obtained of 
them, and the children will not only talk about 
Lincoln, but they will also become acquainted 
with the names and work of America's great 
sculptors. 

Washington has been peculiarly the victim of 
festival celebrations. Lincoln is usually more 
vividly and humanly treated than Washington, 
and the average boy or girl carries from school a 
genuine affection for him, while they feel for 
Washington merely a chilly respect. 

It is hopeless to combat now the " hatchet 
story" which is annually told to thousands of 
children. That this whole episode is absolutely 
false, and was invented after Washington's 
death by an almanac writer by the name of 
Weems, has never been understood by the 
American people. The myth is so firmly fas- 
tened in our educational system that it would be 
useless to attempt to eradicate it. Hatchets and 

125 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

cherry trees can be made by the primary grades 
in illustrative work, and while the fable is not 
especially inspiring, it does not injure the memory 
of the founder of the Republic. The only necessity 
that should be urged upon the teacher is to pre- 
sent to the children, in later years, the true figure 
of Washington. 

Washington did many things worth studying 
about besides spending the winter at Valley 
Forge and crossing the Delaware. 

In the first three years the boyhood life may 
be studied. This would present the picture of the 
old plantation in the South, the big house and 
the tobacco fields, the journey to school in the 
morning, the gallant figure of the little Virginian, 
his bravery and truthfulness, and happy home 
life. 

In a fourth or fifth grade Washington's part in 
the French and Indian War might be used. For 
instance, a little play could be arranged showing 
his journey to the French forts. The children 
could dramatize his departure from Virginia, his 
adventures with the Indians on the way, his 
reception by the French commanders, his thrill- 
ing return across the Ohio to his home. Hand 
work could be used with such a play; Colonial 
hats, Indian ornaments, the official letter he car- 

126 



CONCERNING HOLIDAYS 

ried, and the French and English flags might be 
made. 

The sixth and seventh grades might study- 
Washington in the Revolution. Here there is a 
wealth of interesting material: the scene in 1775 
when his name was proposed for commander- 
in-chief of the little Continental Army, scenes 
with Lafayette and Steuben, Valley Forge and 
Trenton, episodes of various kinds which show 
his steadfast courage, his noble outlook on life, 
his balanced judgment, his unfailing courtesy. 
His sorrow at Arnold's treason, his treatment of 
the men who maligned him, as Gates and Lee, 
are good lessons in generosity and magnanimity. 
The final hour in Fraunces Tavern, New York 
City, where he said his tender farewell to the 
men who had served with him through the long 
years of war, should not be omitted. Washing- 
ton's career as President abounds with interest 
for eighth- or ninth-year pupils. 

Original theme work or dramatic characteriza- 
tion could show here his struggle with the prob- 
lems of his time. A Cabinet meeting with 
Hamilton and Jefferson discussing their opposing 
views across the table; Washington reading The 
Aurora, and bitterly indignant over the false and 
malicious newspaper attacks upon him; Wash- 

127 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

ington receiving Genet and proclaiming his at- 
titude upon Neutrality. These are all possible 
episodes whose use in the school would empha- 
size the character of the man, "who," says an 
English writer, "has made sacred the word 
c liberty' throughout the world." "No nobler 
figure," writes another, "ever stood in the fore- 
front of a nation's history." If this is the British 
tribute, surely we Americans should make Wash- 
ington a living figure in our schools. 

The plan thus sketched is based upon the 
theory of progressive class-work in an ordinary 
public school. In schools where children leave 
before the upper grades are reached, changes and 
adaptations would be necessary in using such a 
program. 

In all our school celebrations, the underlying 
ideas should be individual and social responsi- 
bility and patriotic service. A modern Memorial 
Day celebration should not only portray the 
heroism of the men who fell during the Civil and 
Spanish Wars, but it should present the present- 
day heroes of the nation. Soldiers, sailors, Red 
Cross nurses and doctors, engineers, etc., work- 
ers of every class or rank in the nation's service, 
should be mentioned, and their devotion under- 
stood and praised. A series of tableaux, speeches, 

128 



CONCERNING HOLIDAYS 

and recitations could be prepared which would 
emphasize this spirit of sacrifice. The children 
should be taught that the belief in duty, the 
power of self-sacrifice, are not mere words, but 
vital realities to all true Americans. 

If the Pilgrims had been afraid to venture 
across the sea, if Washington had preferred the 
comfort and security of Mount Vernon to the 
dangers and uncertainties of a perilous war, if 
Lincoln had been less steadfast, patient, and de- 
termined as he trod the dark and solitary path 
that led to a martyr's grave, there would be no 
America to celebrate in song and festival. 

Let us see to it that our children understand 
that they inherit the responsibility as well as the 
glory of citizenship. "He alone is base/' says 
Emerson, "and that is the one base thing in the 
universe, to receive benefits and confer none." 
No lesson is more important than this one, for 
"the future of the Republic" is, indeed, "shaped 
in our schools." 

Our national holidays should be spiritual 
power-houses from which we can generate a 
vast current which will vivify and ennoble the 
America that is to be. 

Music, symbolic pageants, tableaux, plays, 
and other devices should be introduced into the 

129 



THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 

programs. Many school magazines publish help- 
ful suggestions for festival days which a teacher 
can adopt for her classroom. Children enjoy as- 
sisting in the program-making and a commit- 
tee of pupils will often add original and inter- 
esting features to a holiday celebration. 

The following brief list of books contains help- 
ful and valuable school material: — 

Denton, Holiday Facts and Fancies. Educational 

Publishing Company. 
Horsford, Stories of our Holidays. Silver, Burdett 

& Company. 
Merington, Holiday Plays. Duffield Company. 
Olcott, Good Stories for Great Holidays. Houghton 

Mifflin Company. 
Patten, The Year's Festivals. Dana Estes Company. 
Schauffler, Our American Holidays (Series). Moffat 

Yard Company. 
Stevenson, Days and Deeds (prose and poetry). 

Doubleday, Page & Company. 



OUTLINE 

I. THE VALUE OF HISTORY IN THE ELEMENTARY 

SCHOOL 

i. History explains the present i 

2. History develops the reasoning power and the 

balanced judgment 4 

3. History stimulates the imagination and inter- 

ests the child in historical reading 6 

4. History as a guide to conduct 8 

II. THE HISTORY STORY IN THE PRIMARY 

GRADES 

1. The oral history story 10 

a. The first requirement: enthusiasm 10 

b. The second requirement: adequate prep- 

aration 11 

c. The third requirement: arrangement in 

logical sequence 11 

d. The fourth outline: clothing the story. . . 11 

2. The use of the question 12 

3. The personal element 12 

III. THE BIOGRAPHICAL STORY IN THE 
INTERMEDIATE GRADES 

1. Definite aims in presentation r f 15 

a. The appeal to the heroic and dramatic. .. 16 

b. Bringing out the character of the period . 16 

c. Unifying the sequence 16 

d. Preparing the way for connected textbook 

study 17 

131 



OUTLINE 

2. Dramatization for review work 19 

3. Interesting games as review devices 20 

IV. THE USE OF THE HISTORY TEXTBOOK 

1. Serious study begins with the textbook 22 

2. Preliminary examination of the textbook 23 

V. THE ASSIGNMENT OF THE LESSON 

1. The assignment is fundamental 25 

2. Some faults in lesson assignment 25 

3. The time for lesson assignment 27 

4. Suggestions for lesson assignments 28 

VI. THE STUDY RECITATION 

1. Teaching the child to study 29 

2. Causes of serious difficulties in studying history 30 

a. Failure to comprehend the meaning of 

words 31 

b. Lack of concentration in reading 31 

c. Inability to pick out important topics. . . 32 

d. Missing the relation between cause and 

effect 32 

e. Bad memorizing habits 33 

/. Depending on the teacher for explanation 33 

3. Silent reading and its results 33 

4. Supplementing the study of the text 34 

5. Guiding home study 36 

VII. THE USE OF OUTSIDE READING 

1. Outside reading a vital factor 38 

2. The worth of reference reading 38 

132 



OUTLINE 

3. Types of recommended readings 39 

a. Source readings 39 

b. Supplementary texts 41 

c. The larger histories and biographies 42 

d. Fiction and poetry 43 

e. Magazine and newspaper references 43 

4. The use of the library 45 

VIII. THE RECITATION 

1. The function of the recitation 47 

2. The tendency toward a narrow, mechanical 

testing use 47 

3. Various types of recitations 49 

a. The question and answer recitation 49 

b. The topical recitation 52 

c. The class discussion of a subject 55 

d. The exposition by the teacher 57 

4. The point of view in the choice of material ... 59 

a. One-sided selection 60 

b. Emphasizing the most fruitful aspects. . . 61 

c. Bringing in the necessary historical back- 

ground 64 

5. Using the "problem method" 64 

6. The "motivating" lesson 66 

7. Teaching history by means of the present 68 

8. Relating history and literature 68 

IX. THE USE OF THE OUTLINE 

1. The aim of the outline 70 

2. Textbook outlines 71 

3. Individual outlines 72 

4. Outlines made in class 73 

5. The outline for recitation and review 75 

133 



OUTLINE 

X- THE USE OF ILLUSTRATIVE MATERIAL 

1. The worth of visual and manual aids 78 

2. Maps and charts 79 

3. Constructive hand work 84 

4. Pictures 86 

XI. DRAMATIZATION 

1. The natural interest in dramatization 91 

2„ History a rich field for dramatic representation 94 

3. Two classes of dramatizations 95 

a. The formal play, pageant, or tableau 95 

b. Informal or spontaneous presentations. . . 99 

X. DEBATES 

1. The tradition of debate 103 

2. The value of formal debate 103 

a. Develops fluent expression 103 

b. Teaches self-confidence 104 

c. Trains in parliamentary procedure 104 

d. Engenders self-control 104 

e. Fosters careful preparation 105 

3. The informal debate 106 

XIII. RELATION OF HISTORY TO GEOGRAPHY 

1. History is conditioned by geography 109 

2. Social, religious, and patriotic ideals as other 

conditioning factors 113 

XIV. CONCERNING ENGLISH 

1. English is not an isolated subject 115 

2. The daily history lesson as a medium for teach- 

ing English 117 

134 



OUTLINE 

XV. CONCERNING HOLIDAYS 

1. Honor days as opportunities for history teach- 

ing 122 

2. The need for originality and variety 123 

3. A progressive plan for the grades 123 

4. Underlying ideas of responsibility and patriotic 

service 128 

5. A brief list of helpful books 130 



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3016 



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